Shrubs or small trees, sometimes ± scrambling. Spines absent (in ours). Stipules oblong or triangular, hairy within. Leaves opposite (rarely whorled), petiolate, often with domatia.
Flowers axillary, solitary or in 2-10-flowered umbel-like cymes, peduncles and pedicels mostly clearly present, 5-merous, white, yellowish or greenish. Calyx tube subspherical. Corolla: tube cylindric; lobes acute or very long-apiculate or with a filiform appendage.
Ovary mostly 3-5-locular but some species 2-locular. Pollen presenter distinctly 2-5-lobed at apex.
Fruit usually spherical with 1-5 pyrenes. Worldwide: 60-70 species in tropical Africa Caprivi: 13 cultivated taxa. |
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