Scrambling, creeping or climbing perennial herbs, somewhat woody near base; roots somewhat woody, reddish (yielding a red dye); stems branched, 4-angled, ± brittle, mostly beset with recurved prickles
Leaves
and stipules similar, in whorls of 4-8(-12), petiolate; blades cordate or broadly ovate, ovate-lanceolate to linear, rounded to ± cordate at base or narrowed to base, with 1-5(-7) prominent veins
Flowers
in axillary and/or terminal cymes, bisexual, (4)5(6)-merous
Calyx
with lobes obsolete
Corolla
rotate to subcampanulate, greenish, yellowish green to yellow; lobes ± triangular, (long-)acuminate
Stamens
: anthers exserted
Ovary
crowned by a minute disc; 2-locular, 1 ovule in each chamber arising on septum; style branches 2, joined below; stigmas capitate
Fruit
fleshy, glabrous, consisting of 2 round mericarps, each with a single seed, round on dorsal side, plane to convex on ventral side; one mericarp often aborted
x = 11 (B-chromosomes, high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Rubia
L.
Linnaeus: 109 (1753)
Linnaeus: 47 (1754)
Sonder: 34 (1865)
Phillips: 739 (1951)
Puff: 61 (1986)
Puff: 193 (1989)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 60, Africa, temperate Asia, America
Southern Africa
: Species 3, widespread
References:
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm.
LINNAEUS, C. 1754.
Genera plantarum
, edn 5. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 25
PUFF, C. 1986.
Paederieae
,
Anthospermeae
,
Rubieae
.
Flora of southern Africa
31, part 1, fascicle 2
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