Perennial succulent herbs with long, creeping stems bearing ± short upright branches; stems frequently rooting at nodes
Leaves
sessile, decussate, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, mostly obtuse at apex; stipule sheath cupular, toothed
Flowers
heterostylous; sessile, axillary, solitary or in pairs
Calyx
irregularly lobed, ± lacerate, persistent in fruit
Corolla
4-lobed, white or pinkish tinged on outside; lobes lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; tube funnel-shaped, with a ring of hairs below throat
Stamens
4, arising in corolla mouth, exserted; filaments shorter than anthers; anthers linear or linear-oblong, exserted
Ovary
2-locular, with a single ovule in each locule; ovule attached near base of septum; style slender, subexserted, divided ± halfway into linear branches; stigmas hairy
Fruit
indehiscent, 1- or 2-locular, 1- or 2-seeded, ellipsoid to oblong-ovoid, laterally compressed, faintly ribbed, small and largely hidden in stipular sheath
Seeds
± ellipsoidal, minutely granulate
Nomenclature:
Phylohydrax
Puff
Puff: 362 (1986)
Sonder: 25 (1865) as
Hydrophylax
Phillips: 737 (1951) as
Hydrophylax
Verdcourt: 162 (1989)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 2, tropical Africa and Madagascar
Southern Africa
: Species 1:
Phylohydrax carnosa
(Hochst.) Puff, along the seashores of KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern and Western Cape up to Mossel Bay
References:
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 25
PUFF, C. 1986.
Phylohydrax
(
Rubiaceae
-
Spermacoceae
) - a new genus to accommodate the African and Madagascan 'Hydrophylax' species.
Plant Systematics and Evolution
154
SONDER, O.W. 1865.
Rubiaceae
.
Flora capensis
3
VERDCOURT, B. 1989.
Rubiaceae
.
Flora zambesiaca
5,1
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