Corolla 2-lipped; upper lip bifid or subentire; lower lip deeply 3-lobed, with lobes ovate or oblong; aestivation ascending; tube longer than lobes, cylindric or funnel-shaped
Androecium: fertile stamens 2, arising low down in corolla tube, exserted; filaments linear; anthers 2-thecous; thecae parallel, muticous; staminodes 2
Pollen spheroidal, 3-colporate, with pseudocolpi; surface reticulate
Disc shallowly cupular, sometimes with V-shaped slit, with 2 awns
Gynoecium: ovary with 1 or occasionally 2 ovules in each locule; style terete, somewhat exserted; style branches 2, equal, expanded and disciform
Capsule ovoid, stipitate, with inelastic placental bases
Seeds irregularly obovate, dorsiventral, rimmed, with hygroscopic glochidiate hairs sparse on central area
x = 9 (10) (polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Ecbolium Kurz
Kurz: 75 (1871)
Vollesen: 638 (1989)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 22, Africa to India
Southern Africa: Species 3, Namibia, Swaziland and eastern provinces of South Africa
References:
KURZ, W.S. 1871. Ecbolium. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 40
VOLLESEN, K. 1989. A revision of Megalochlamys and Ecbolium (Acanthaceae: Justicieae). Kew Bulletin 44
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Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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