Small trees or shrubs, rarely lianes. Stipules persistent, usually connate above the nodes for a short distance. Leaves shortly petiolate; blades thin or scarcely coriaceous, mid and lateral veins usually prominent beneath; petioles normally channelled above. Inflorescence panicles, cymes or spherical compact heads, terminal, 5-merous; calyx limb-tube cup-shaped and frequently wider than the tube in flower, but narrower in fruit, truncate or 5-toothed or –lobed; corolla with a hairy throat, often with the walls of tube toughened or thick, tube exceeding the calyx limb, lobes (4)5, usually acuminate or apiculate, contorted to the left in the bud. Disk cup-shaped or annular, glabrous, fleshy. Ovary 2-celled with numerous ovules inserted on a thickened placenta. Fruit indehiscent, ovoid or globose, often coriaceous; calyx limb persistent and pedicels sometimes accrescent. Seeds numerous, red-brown to black, angular.
Worldwide: Species 60, in Africa, Madagascar, Mascarenes and New World. DRC: 1 taxon. |
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