7191.000 Clerodendrum L.

Trees, shrubs, subshrubs or lianes, usually strongly foetid when crushed. Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3-4, simple. Flowers in lax cymes, panicles, corymbs or heads, rarely solitary. Calyx campanulate to tubular, truncate to 5-toothed. often accrescent in fruit, sometimes coloured and showy. Flower bud symmetrical, or if asymmetrical usually expanding on the upper side due to resupination; anterior corolla lobe only slightly (if at all) larger than the other 4. Corolla white, blue, violet or red; tube sometimes very long or only as long as the calyx. Stamens 4-5, didynamous, usually long-exserted; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary imperfectly 4-locular. Stigma 2-fid, exserted, the lobes equal. Fruit a drupe, often 4-grooved and ± (2-)4-lobed.

Worldwide: c. 400 species in tropical and warm countries

Malawi: 9 taxa.