Erect or scrambling or twining, monoecious (rarely dioecious)
perennial herbs or shrubs, with stinging hairs. Leaves alternate, stipulate, often cordate. Flowers in racemes, usually mostly male with 1-2 females at the base. Bracts conspicuous, persistent. Petals 0. Male flowers with 3 sepals and 3 stamens. Female flowers with 3 or 6 pinnate or palmate sepals, becoming enlarged in fruit. Ovary 3-locular. Derivation of name: named after the German botanist Hieronymus Bock, whose Latin name was Tragus, 1498-1554. Worldwide: 100 species in tropical and warm areas Malawi: 9 taxa. The larvae of the following species of insect eat species of this genus: |
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