Flowers ± irregular, terminal on lateral branches; inflorescences thyrsic; bracts small to minute
Calyx unequally 5-lobed, hairy without and within, lobes longer than tube, with 3 small lobes ovate-acute, 2 others oblong-obtuse, enlarged and pink or red in fruit; tube shallow
Stamens 5, arising in upper part of corolla tube; anthers included, sessile, linear, with apical tail and obtuse, sagittate base, hairy on back
Disc annular
Ovary 2-locular, with a solitary pendulous ovule in each locule; style ± curved, long-exserted, glabrous; stigma lobes 2, minute, filiform to elliptic
Fruit indehiscent, small, oval, crowned with large, spathulate, veined, coloured calyx lobes
x = 9, 11 (1 report, aneuploids, polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Alberta E.Mey.
Meyer: 258 (1838)
Sonder: 15 (1865)
Hooker: 22 & 109 (1873)
Schumann: 89 (1891)
Cavacoa: 517 (1965)
Puff et al.: 338 (1984)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 5, 4 in Madagascar, 1 in southern Africa
Southern Africa: Species 1: Alberta magna E.Mey., N KwaZulu-Natal to border of Eastern Cape
References:
CAVACOA, A. 1965. Remarques sur les genres Alberta E.Mey. et Nematostylis Hook.f. (Rubiaceae). Adansonia, sér. 2,5
HOOKER, J.D. 1873. Rubiaceae. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 2. L. Reeve, London
MEYER, E.H.F. 1838. Alberta magna, eine neue Pflanzengattung. Linnaea 12
PUFF, C., ROBBRECHT, E. & RANDRIANASOLO, V. 1984. Observations on the SE African-Madagascan genus Alberta and its ally Nematostylis (Rubiaceae, Alberteae), with a survey of the species and a discussion of the taxonomic position. Bulletin du Jardin Botanique National de Belgique 54
SCHUMANN, K.M. 1891. Rubiaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 4,4
SONDER, O.W. 1865. Rubiaceae. Flora capensis 3
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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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