Description :

• Subshrubs, sometimes perennial herbs
• Leaves alternate, often somewhat ericoid
• Flowers solitary or glomerate at ends of branches or in dichotomous panicles
• Calyx shorter to longer than corolla tube, 5-lobed or 5-partite, glabrous or hairy; lobes variable
• Corolla 5-lobed, glabrous; tube campanulate or subcylindric, expanding above; lobes elliptic-lanceolate to obovate-oblong
• Stamens 5, free from corolla, included or shortly exserted; filaments long, linear and pilose or short and dilated at base; anthers 2-thecous, linear
• Disc glandular, swollen, or 0
• Ovary cylindric, 2-locular, with many ovules in each locule, usually hairy; style linear or thick and terete, sometimes with 2 glands below stigma, included or exserted; stigma usually 2-lobed, rarely cylindric
• Fruit a capsule, splitting from top to base into 5 segments
• Seeds oblong, compressed, dotted

Nomenclature:

• Prismatocarpus L'Hér.
  • L'Héritier de Brutelle: 1, t. 3 (1789)
  • Adamson: 93 (1951)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 30, mostly Western Cape, also Northern and Eastern Cape