Description :

• Shrublets or procumbent, perennial herbs
• Leaves varying from ovate to linear
• Inflorescence axillary, scorpioid or dichasial cymes, with few to many flowers; lower bracts present or 0, ultimate 2 bracts large, enclosing calyx
• Calyx regular, glandular; lobes 4 or 5, when 4 then anticous one usually bifid or 2-toothed and lateral ones smaller; tube shorter than lobes
• Corolla ± 2-lipped; upper lip 2-lobed; lower lip 3-lobed, with palate transversely ribbed and furnished with retrorse hairs; lobes obovate, obtuse or emarginate; aestivation contorted; rugula indistinct; tube longer than lobes, straight or curved, usually cylindric below and campanulate above
• Androecium : fertile stamens 4, didynamous, arising at ± middle of corolla tube, included; filaments arising in pairs, broadly linear; anthers 2-thecous; thecae parallel, muticous or mucronate at base; staminodes 0
• Pollen prolate, 3-porate, with pseudocolpi; pore lipped; surface reticulate
• Disc annular
• Gynoecium : ovary with 2 ovules in each locule; style terete, pubescent; style branches 2, equal, cylindriform
• Capsule estipitate, compressed, narrowed at base and apex, with elastic placental bases
• Seeds orbicular, with hygroscopic hairs over whole surface
• x = 8 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Petalidium Nees
  • Nees von Esenbeck: 75 (1832)
  • Obermeyer: 151 (1936)
  • Meyer: 50 (1968)
• Pseudobarleria T.Anderson
  • Anderson: 26 (1864)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species ± 35, Africa to India
• Southern Africa : Species 28, mainly Namibia, Botswana and arid northern and western parts of South Africa