Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes aquatic. Leaves opposite, decussate, sometimes arranged in a rosette, rarely floating (e.g. in L. conferta); the venation usually palmate. Flowers solitary and axillary or arranged in terminal racemes. Calyx 5-lobed, tubular; tube ± 5-ribbed or -winged. Corolla 2-lipped; tube cylindric or somewhat campanulate above; upper lip erect, broad, concave, entire to deeply 2-fid; lower lip larger, spreading with 3 broad rounded lobes. Stamens usually 2 with 2 staminodes, rarely all 4 fertile. Nectary present, disc-like, at base of ovary. Ovary 2-locular; ovules many. Fruit a septicidal capsule. Seeds many,
with a thin-walled epidermis. Worldwide: c. 80 species occurring in tropical and warm temperate regions, mainly in Africa. Zambia: 3 taxa. |
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