Description :

• Small glandular-pubescent annuals or perennials becoming woody at base
• Leaves sessile, serrate; stipules 0
• Flowers in few-flowered axillary racemes
• Calyx forming a long, narrow tube, hairy on outside and within in lower half
• Petals convolute in bud, arising in throat of calyx, spathulate, yellow or orange
• Stamens perigynous, equal, or unequal in length, reaching to mouth of tube
• Ovary oblong-ovoid, pubescent; ovules pluriseriate; styles filiform, just over-topping stamens
• Capsule ellipsoid, splitting to base, glandular-hispid
• Seeds sausage-shaped; testa reticulate, pits with 2 pores; aril unilateral, as long as, or shorter than seed, with a wavy margin

Nomenclature:

• Streptopetalum Hochst.
  • Hochstetter: 665 (1841)
  • Urban: 55 (1883)
  • Schreiber: 2 (1968)
  • Obermeyer: 98 (1976)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 3, African
• Southern Africa : Species 1: Streptopetalum serratum Hochst., recorded from Ethiopia to Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province and Mpumalanga