Perennial herbs with branched, often ± woody rhizomes or rootstocks, bisexual, bisexual + female, female or occasionally male, bisexual + male, male + bisexual + female or male + female
Leaves decussate, broadly ovate to lanceolate, distinctly petiolate; stipular sheaths with 3-5(-7) setae on either side
Inflorescence terminal, paniculate to thyrso-paniculate, bracteate
Flowers bisexual, female or male, 4(5)-merous
Calyx obsolete
Bisexual and male flowers: corolla with tube (very) short, broadly funnel-shaped to campanulate, lobes recurved, ± lanceolate; anthers yellowish to whitish, exserted, dangling on long, slender, filiform filaments
Female flowers: corolla much smaller, tube cylindrical, sometimes ± 0; lobes erect to spreading, ± linear
Ovary 2-locular with a solitary erect ovule per locule; style 0; stigmas 2, long exserted, in bisexual flowers often shorter and thinner than in female flowers, hairy, greyish white, yellowish grey or greenish
Fruit dehiscent, not supported by a carpophore; mericarps ± glabrous, tuberculate or covered with long hairs, dorsal side convex, ventral side plane to concave
x = 11
Nomenclature:
Galopina Thunb.
Thunberg: 3 (1781)
Cruse: 18 (1825)
Sonder: 26 (1865)
Hooker: 139 (1873)
Schumann: 128 (1891)
Puff: 48 (1986)
Verdcourt: 160 (1989)
Oxyspermum Eckl. & Zeyh.
Ecklon & Zeyher: 365 (1836)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 4, S Malawi to southeastern regions of southern Africa
CRUSE, C.F.W. 1825. De Rubiaceis capensibus. Brüschke, Berlin
ECKLON, C.F. & ZEYHER, C. 1836. Enumeratio plantarum africae australis extratropicae. Published by the author, Hamburg
HOOKER, J.D. 1873. Rubiaceae. In G. Bentham & J.D. Hooker, Genera plantarum 2. L. Reeve, London
PUFF, C. 1986. Paederieae, Anthospermeae, Rubieae. Flora of southern Africa 31, part 1, fascicle 2
SCHUMANN, K.M. 1891. Rubiaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 4,4
SONDER, O.W. 1865. Rubiaceae. Flora capensis 3
THUNBERG, C.P. 1781. Nova genera plantarum 1. Edmann, Uppsala
VERDCOURT, B. 1989. Rubiaceae. Flora zambesiaca 5,1
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