Description:

• Glabrous, epiphytic, softly woody, branched shrubs; stems ± quadrangular
• Leaves opposite and decussate, ovate or elliptical, petiolate, strongly toothed or repand-dentate; fleshy
• Flowers usually 3 together, clustered at nodes of branchlets, shortly pedicellate; bracteate
• Calyx 5-lobed, much shorter than corolla tube; lobes equal, lanceolate, valvate, glandular-papillose
• Corolla slightly irregular, 5-lobed; tube long, somewhat incurved, cylindrical and ribbed in lower part, there also with stiff white hairs inside, funnel-shaped above; lobes ovate-oblong, obtuse, equal, much shorter than tube, posterior lobes outside in bud
• Stamens 5, equal; filaments filiform, very short, subsessile, arising in corolla throat; anthers oblong, erect, bithecate, just appearing at mouth of corolla; thecae equal, parallel; staminodes 0
• Nectary hypogynous, pulvinate, almost obsolete
• Ovary bilocular, ovoid; ovules many; style filiform, equal or longer than corolla tube; stigma minutely bifid
• Fruit a bilocular, ovoid-conical, fleshy, indehiscent berry
• Seeds ellipsoid; testa thin, covered with short, disconnected ridges
• x = 19 (1 report)

Nomenclature:

• Dermatobotrys Bolus
  • Bolus: t. 1940 (1890)
  • Engler: 497 (1897)
  • Hiern: 206 (1904)
  • Phillips: t. 188 (1925)
  • Hakki: 93 (1977)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Monotypic: Dermatobotrys saundersii Bolus, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape; epiphytic on forest trees