Trees, dioecious or monoecious, or occasionally with bisexual flowers; bark usually flaking
Leaves
entire or lobed; petioles often with a swollen apical portion (pulvinus)
Flowers
in axillary clusters, cymes, small panicles or solitary, sometimes on old wood; unisexual, occasionally bisexual
Calyx
4- or 5(6)-lobed
Petals
absent
Male flowers
: stamens usually 10, united into a column, bearing sessile anthers in 1 or 2 rings around apex, vestigial carpels often sunk in top of androphore column
Female flowers
: carpels (3)4 or 5(-10), cohering at first with a ring of rudimentary stamens at base; ovules several to many per carpel; styles as many as carpels
Fruit
splitting into 4 or 5 carpels, sometimes 1 or more aborting
Seeds
exendospermous; cotyledons thick, 2 or more
x = 7, 10
Nomenclature:
Cola
Schott & Endl.
Schott & Endlicher: 33 (1832)
Ross: 246 (1973)
Verdoorn: 277 (1981)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species over 100, all African
Southern Africa
: Species 2, KwaZulu-Natal to Eastern Cape
References:
ROSS, J.H. 1973.
Sterculiaceae
. The flora of Natal.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 39
VERDOORN, I.C. 1981. The genus
Cola
in southern Africa.
Bothalia
13
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