Description:

• Shrubs or undershrubs
• Leaves opposite, ternate, quaternate, alternate, or scattered, simple, entire or glandular-crenate, shortly petiolate, variable in shape, usually ± conspicuously gland-dotted beneath
• Flowers bisexual or gynoecium imperfect, pedunculate or occasionally sessile, mostly in terminal clusters, often solitary or few together in axils of upper leaves; bracteoles 2 or 0
• Calyx 5-parted, often with sepals unequal
• Petals 5(-8), hypogynous, imbricate, sometimes clawed, usually gland-dotted on lower surface
• Stamens 5, free at base of disc; filaments terete or compressed; anthers introrse, with terminal gland on connective; staminodes opposite, but rarely adnate to petals, often petaloid, usually with gland behind apex
• Disc cup-shaped, crenulate, rarely toothed or lobed, clasping or enveloping ovary
• Ovary superior, of 1-5 almost free carpels, usually with process near apex of dorsal angle and with 2 superimposed or collateral, axile ovules; style elongate, with simple or subcapitate stigma
• Fruit capsular, with 1-5 1-seeded cocci, the inner and outer walls separating at maturity
• x = 13 (1 report)

Nomenclature:

• Agathosma Willd.
  • Willdenow: 259 (1809) name conserved
  • Pillans: 55 (1950)
• Barosma Willd.
  • Willdenow: 259 (1809)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 140, concentrated in Western Cape, extending into Eastern Cape, 1 species: Agathosma ovata (Thunb.) Pillans, extending into KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho