Description :

• Shrubs, scandent
• Leaves opposite or subopposite, simple, oblong or obovate, acuminate, entire
• Flowers showy, usually in a short, axillary or terminal spike or sometimes a raceme
• Receptacle : tube ovoid below and elongated, cylindric above ovary
• Sepals : lobes 5, short
• Petals 5, longer than calyx lobes, oblong or suborbicular
• Stamens 10, arising from within throat of calyx tube
• Ovary with 3 or 4 ovules; style partly adnate to calyx tube; stigma subdilated
• Fruit dry, leathery, oblong, acutely 5-angled, 5-winged and 5-furrowed, 1-seeded
• Seed 5-angled and 5-furrowed
• x = 13 (11, 12) (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Quisqualis L.
  • Linnaeus: 556 (1762)
  • Sonder: 512 (1862)
  • Carr: 177 (1988)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 17, Africa, India, and Philippine islands
• Southern Africa : Species 1: Quisqualis parviflora Gerrard ex Sond., Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape