Description :

• Herbs, often unbranched, covered with setae
• Leaves opposite, subsessile, spaced, usually lanceolate, entire
• Flowers few, congested at ends of stems or branches
• Calyx 4-lobed; tube membranous, campanulate; lobes shorter than tube, ovate, obtuse, with few long setae
• Petals 4, arising in mouth of calyx tube, obovate, scarcely clawed, with few setae at tip
• Stamens 8, equal, arising in mouth of calyx tube, about as long as petals; dorsifixed; pedoconnective (prolongation of connective below anther thecae) strictly without heel or 'talon,' outgrowth often reduced but always present, bilobed or bipartite; anthers 1-thecous, opening by a terminal pore
• Ovary inferior, 4-locular, with many ovules in each locule, with a crown of setae at apex; style thick, terete, slightly longer than stamens; stigma subcapitate
• Fruit a capsule enclosed in calyx
• Seed sculptured

Nomenclature:

• Antherotoma (Naudin) Hook.f.
  • Hooker: 745 (1867)
  • Fernandes & Fernandes: 229 (1978)
  • Jacques-Félix: 268, 282 (1995)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 11 in Africa
• Southern Africa : Species 3, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape