Description :

• Undershrubs or shrubs, sometimes ericoid
• Leaves usually fascicled, sometimes scattered
• Flowers solitary, axillary, small, subsessile
• Sepals dry, membranous, subequal, the 2 lateral ones slightly or much larger than others
• Petals 3; the lower hooded, with 2 large, wing-like appendages below apex, rarely with only 1 appendage; lateral petals free or cohering by their edges
• Stamens 7; filament tube usually inflated about the middle; anthers 1-thecous, dehiscing by a longitudinal slit
• Ovary 2-locular, 4-horned, sometimes hairy; style curved near apex, usually 2-lobed; stigma usually lateral, rarely discoid
• Fruit a membranous capsule, 2-seeded, compressed, usually with 4 horns or tubercles, sometimes hispid
• Seeds with aril produced into membranous flaps on either side

Nomenclature:

• Muraltia DC.
  • Candolle: 335 (1824)
  • Harvey: 95 (1860)
  • Levyns: 1 (1954)
  • Levyns: 9 (1955)
  • Exell: 307 (1960)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 115, Africa
• Southern Africa : Species Muraltia flanaganii Bolus from Tanzania southwards, 4 in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape and all others endemic in Cape Floristic Region (Western and S Eastern Cape)