5112.000 Ochna L.

Trees or shrubs, usually completely glabrous. Bark without yellow pigment beneath. Stipules entire or fringed or 2-fid, not striate, deciduous. Leaves petiolate; midrib raised on both the upper and lower leaf surfaces. Inflorescences paniculate to racemose or umbellate or reduced to a solitary flower, terminal or terminating short axillary shoots. Flowering often spectacular and of short duration. Sepals green or yellow (pink or white in O. arenaria) in flower, persistent, enlarging and becoming red in fruit. Petals yellow or rarely orange to white, deciduous. Stamens (14-)20-many. Carpels (3-)5-15.

Worldwide: 86 species in the Old World tropics

Malawi: 11 taxa.