Description:

• Shrubs or shrublets with branches usually erect, slightly carnose but somewhat woody
• Leaves opposite or rarely whorled, free, sessile, fleshy, persistent
• Inflorescence a thyrse with one to several dichasia usually ending in monochasial branches; bracts on peduncle distinct and abruptly shorter than leaves; flowers usually pendulous, 5-merous
• Calyx 5-partite
• Corolla with 5 petals fused into a tube often longer than lobes
• Stamens 10, in 2 whorls; filaments usually with a tuft of hairs where fused to lower third of corolla tube; anthers exserted, with terminal appendage spherical or almost so
• Squamae ± fused laterally to opposite carpel to form a cup
• Carpels sometimes slightly fused at base, with slender styles
• Seeds ellipsoid, with constriction before abruptly widening at blunt proximal end, covered with vertical ridges and dense horizontal striations in grooves
• x = 9 (6, 8, 17) (aneuploids, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Cotyledon L.
  • Linnaeus: 429 (1753)
  • Harvey: 370 (1862)
  • Schonland: 130 (1915)
  • Berger: 412 (1930)
  • Friedrich: 5 (1968)
  • Tölken: 377 (1979)
  • Tölken: 3 (1985)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species 9, widespread throughout southern Africa extending into eastern tropical Africa, Ethiopia and the SW Arabian Peninsula
• Southern Africa: Species 9, widespread