Small trees or shrubs, with stinging hairs on younger parts; stems and branches thick and with soft wood; plants dioecious
Leaves
alternate, simple, often palmately or pinnately lobed, large, cordate at base, petiolate, with dot-like cystoliths; stipules lateral, free, almost foliaceous, persistent for some time
Inflorescences
mostly in axils of fallen leaves, appearing before new leaves; male inflorescences smaller than female ones
Flowers
pedicellate, clustered in branched, bracteate panicles
Female flowers
irregular; tepals 4, with inner pair of segments larger than outer pair, accrescent; staminodes 0; ovary at first erect, soon oblique; stigma oblong, soon oblique, papillate
Achene
compressed, ovoid to orbicular, partially enveloped in thinly membranous, persistent tepals
Nomenclature:
Obetia
Gaudich.
Gaudichaud-Beaupré: t. 82 (1844)
Weddell: 106, t. 1B (1856)
Weddell: 69 (1869)
Bentham: 382 (1880)
Engler: 106 (1888)
Rendle: 244 (1917)
Roessler: 5 (1967)
Friis: 221 (1983)
Friis: 10 (1989)
Friis: 85 (1991)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 8, east tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar, the Mascarenes and Aldabra Islands; most species occur in dry habitats
Southern Africa
: Species 2, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, E North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape
References:
BENTHAM, G. 1880. Tribus
Urticeae
. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker,
Genera plantarum
3. Lovell Reeve & Co., London
ENGLER, A. 1888.
Urticaceae
.
Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien
3,1
FRIIS, I. 1983. A synopsis of
Obetia
Gaud. (
Urticaceae
).
Kew Bulletin
38
FRIIS, I. 1989.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Urticaceae
FRIIS, I. 1991.
Urticaceae
.
Flora zambesiaca
9,6
GAUDICHAUD-BEAUPRÉ, C. 1844. Voyage autour du monde exécuté pendant les annales 1836 et 1837 sur la corvette la Bonite.
Botanique, Atlas
. Arthus Bertrand, Paris
RENDLE, A.B. 1917.
Urticaceae
.
Flora of tropical Africa
6,2
ROESSLER, H. 1967.
Urticaceae
.
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
17
WEDDELL, H.A. 1856. Monographie de la famille des Urticacées. Gide & J. Baudry, Paris. Reprinted in
Archives du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris
9
WEDDELL, H.A. 1869.
Urticaceae
. In A. de Candolle,
Prodromus
16,1. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
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