Description :

• Herbs, annual or perennial with woody rootstock; with or without stems
• Leaves usually in rosettes at apex of stems or at ground level, paripinnate (abortive, terminal leaflet bristle-like), ± sensitive to touch, usually articulated slightly above insertion; leaflets opposite or subopposite, shortly petiolulate or subsessile
• Flowers in pseudo-umbels, with bracts forming an involucre
• Sepals 5, free, imbricate
• Petals 5, contorted, free at first, later coherent and falling together
• Stamens 10, 5 longer, 5 shorter, all slightly connate at base
• Ovary 5-locular, 5-lobed
• Fruit an obovoid, subglobose or ellipsoid, loculicidally dehiscent capsule
• Seeds usually tuberculate
• x = 9, 10 (1 report each)

Nomenclature:

• Biophytum DC.
  • Candolle: 689 (1824)
  • Exell: 156 (1963)
  • Schreiber: 1 (1966)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 8, tropical and subtropical Africa and Madagascar
• Southern Africa : Species 2, Namibia