Description:

• Shrubs or small trees with both spines and brachyblasts present or 0
• Leaves opposite, but may appear fascicled due to congestion, shortly petiolate, glabrous; domatia 0; stipules intrapetiolar, ovate, tightly inrolled and seldom persisting beyond apical node
• Flowers borne in 1 axil near apex of lateral branches or brachyblasts, either solitary or up to 3 on a common peduncle, or peduncle almost obsolete; pedicels almost obsolete; bracts paired, ovate
• Calyx with tube oblong-ovate, limb well developed, tubular, divided into triangular teeth near apex, inside pubescent, at least near apex and with colleters present near apex
• Corolla 5(6)-lobed, white, often streaked with pink or red outside, usually salver-shaped; lobes elliptic to broadly elliptic, spreading, puberulous on both faces, contorted; tube narrowly cylindrical, slightly widened at apex, glabrous or pubescent outside, with a patch of hairs near midpoint inside
• Stamens 5(6); anthers linear, sessile, attached near middle of corolla tube, partly exserted
• Disc usually annular
• Ovary 2-locular; ovules many; style narrowly cylindrical, glabrous, somewhat shorter than or ± equalling corolla tube in length; stigma exserted or sometimes included, bifid, with 2 ovate lobes normally cohering
• Fruit spherical to fusiform, thin-walled, unilocular; calyx limb persistent
• Seeds many, embedded in fleshy placental tissue; testa thin, reticulate, often rugulose

Nomenclature:

• Hyperacanthus E.Mey. ex Bridson
  • Bridson: 687 (1985)
  • Bridson & Robbrecht: 275 (1985)
• Gardenia J.Ellis in part

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species 2, tropical Africa
• Southern Africa: Species 2: Hyperacanthus amoenus (Sims) Bridson, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, H. microphyllus (K.Schum.) Bridson, northern part of KwaZulu-Natal