Shrubs, glabrous or pubescent; stems subterete, erect, branched
Leaves paired or in whorls of 3, shortly petiolate, tricuspidate or 3-5-setose; stipules with 3-5 linear or filiform colleter-tipped setae from a short base adnate to petioles
Flowers dimorphic; in terminal corymbose heads
Calyx entire or 4- or 5-lobed, becoming white; tube small, campanulate; limb strongly accrescent, oblique, dilated, reticulated, shallow
Corolla 5-lobed, valvate, white; tube elongated, densely hairy in throat
Stamens 5, arising from throat or corolla, included or exserted; anthers linear-oblong
Disc fleshy
Ovary 2(3)-locular, each locule with a slender basal placenta bearing ± 4-6 ovules; style filiform; stigma with 2(4) filiform lobes
Fruit apparently always indehiscent, obconic, strongly ribbed, ribs running out into accrescent calyx lobes, 1- or 2-seeded
Seeds narrowly oblong-obconic
x = 11
Nomenclature:
Carphalea Juss.
Jussieu: 198 (1789)
Verdcourt: 82 (1989)
Dirichletia Klotzsch
Klotzsch: 494 (1853)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 14, tropical Africa and Madagascar
Southern Africa: Species 1: Carphalea pubescens (Klotzsch) Verdc., Namibia and Botswana
References:
JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1789. Genera plantarum. Ziegler, Zürich
KLOTZSCH, J.F. 1853. Dirichletia. Monatsberichte der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften 1853
VERDCOURT, B. 1989. Rubiaceae. Flora zambesiaca 5,1
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
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.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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