Perennial herbs or subshrubs. Leaves subsessile; stipule a sheath bearing 3-15 fimbriae. Flowers often heterostylous, borne in cymes or corymbs or subspherical heads. Calyx with 4 ovate-triangular lobes. Corolla tubular, 4-lobed, often with additional filament-like lobes between.
Ovary 2(-3)-locular; ovules numerous in each loculus. Fruit a subspherical capsule, with a conical beak which opens both loculicidally and septicidally. Worldwide: Probably only 3 species, confined to tropical Africa and the Comoro Is. Zambia: 4 taxa. |
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