Dioecious, less often monoecious, trees, shrubs or herbs. Indumentum simple. Leaves simple, alternate, entire. Flowers in axillary fascicles; female flowers sometimes solitary. Male flowers: pedicels jointed; sepals 5, imbricate; petals 5, free, clawed; disk with glands in 1-3 series on the sepals, petals and receptacle; stamens 5; pistillode present. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male but persistent and hardening in fruit; ovary 3-locular with 1 ovule per loculus; styles 3. Fruit splitting into 3 2-valved cocci. Seeds shiny, black. Worldwide: 70 species, mostly in Africa, including 2 in Arabia. Malawi: 9 taxa. |
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| Species | FZ divisions | Content |
| abyssinica Jaub. & Spach. var. abyssinica | N,C,S | Description, Image |
| abyssinica Jaub. & Spach. var. pedicellaris (Pax) Pax | N,C,S | Description |
| abyssinica Jaub. & Spach. [Agg] | N,C,S | |
| angustifolia Knauf ex Pax | N,C,S | |
| brassii Brenan [End] | S | |
| conferta Hutch. [End] | S | |
| paxii Knauf ex Pax | N | Description, Image |
| swynnertonii S. Moore | S | Description, Image |
| whytei Hutch. var. whytei | N,C,S |