Description :

• Annual or perennial herbs, hairy; stems erect or prostrate
• Leaves sessile or shortly petiolate, usually ovate, lateral nerves evident; stipule sheath connate with petioles, bearing several fimbriae
• Flowers in dense, terminal heads, surrounded by an involucre of leaves which are several-nerved from base
• Calyx 4-8-lobed; lobes lanceolate, ovate or subulate, persistent; tube turbinate or subglobose
• Corolla 3-5-lobed, white; lobes ovate or lanceolate; tube shortly funnel-shaped
• Stamens 3-5, arising in corolla throat; filaments filiform; anthers linear or oblong, exserted
• Ovary 3- or 4-locular with a solitary erect ovule in each locule attached near middle of septum; style filiform, exserted; stigmas 3 or 4, linear or spathulate
• Fruit a capsule, separating into cocci, crowned with persistent calyx; cocci muricate or papillose, rarely smooth
• Seeds oblong-ellipsoid or obovoid, convex on back
• x = 7 (8) (1 report, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• *Richardia L.
  • Linnaeus: 330 (1753)
  • Linnaeus: 153 (1754)
  • Phillips: 737 (1951)
  • Lewis & Oliver: 273 (1974)
  • Verdcourt: 190 (1989)
• Richardsonia Kunth
  • Kunth: 43 (1818)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 15, tropical America
• Southern Africa : Species 4 naturalised in eastern regions, absent from Namibia, Botswana, Northern and Western Cape