Description :

• Ericoid, erect, unarmed, short-lived shrubs, glabrous
• Leaves scattered, simple, needle-like; stipules small, scale-like
• Flowers axillary, solitary, small, pedicellate
• Calyx 4-partite, with ovate, acute segments
• Petals 4, ovate, acute, spreading, whitish
• Disc 4-lobed
• Stamens 4, arising on margin of disc, opposite calyx segments; anthers introrse
• Ovary half-inferior, elongate after anthesis, 1-locular, with 4 erect, basal ovules; style short, persistent; stigma capitate
• Fruit relatively large, fusiform, follicle-like, 1-seeded, dehiscing entirely along one suture
• Seeds black, large, with a large, white, basal aril (elaiosome)

Nomenclature:

• Empleuridium Sond.
  • Sonder in Harvey: 49 (1859)
  • Sonder: 442 (1860) assigned to Rutaceae
  • Goldblatt et al.: 167 (1985)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Monotypic: Empleuridium juniperinum Sond. & Harv., mountains in the Caledon District (Western Cape)