Shrubs or small trees, with white
latex and with simple or forked spines. Branches
repeatedly dichotomously branched. Stipules 0. Leaves opposite.
Flowers in terminal corymbs or 1-5-flowered cymes. Calyx lobes imbricate,
free to base. Corolla salver-shaped; tube cylindric; lobes
contorted, overlapping either to left or right. Stamens inserted
at middle or towards top of corolla tube; anthers subsessile,
glabrous. Ovary with 2 carpels, with 1-4 or rarely many ovules
per loculus. Fruit an ellipsoid or ovoid berry. Seeds
discoid or flattened-ellipsoid, velutinous. Worldwide: 37 species in the warm Old World, eastwards to Australia and New Caledonia Malawi: 2 taxa. The larvae of the following species of insect eat species of this genus: |
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