Trees, dioecious or monoecious, or occasionally with bisexual flowers; bark usually flaking
Leaves entire or lobed; petioles often with a swollen apical portion (pulvinus)
Flowers in axillary clusters, cymes, small panicles or solitary, sometimes on old wood; unisexual, occasionally bisexual
Calyx 4- or 5(6)-lobed
Petals absent
Male flowers: stamens usually 10, united into a column, bearing sessile anthers in 1 or 2 rings around apex, vestigial carpels often sunk in top of androphore column
Female flowers: carpels (3)4 or 5(-10), cohering at first with a ring of rudimentary stamens at base; ovules several to many per carpel; styles as many as carpels
Fruit splitting into 4 or 5 carpels, sometimes 1 or more aborting
Seeds exendospermous; cotyledons thick, 2 or more
x = 7, 10
Nomenclature:
Cola Schott & Endl.
Schott & Endlicher: 33 (1832)
Ross: 246 (1973)
Verdoorn: 277 (1981)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species over 100, all African
Southern Africa: Species 2, KwaZulu-Natal to Eastern Cape
References:
ROSS, J.H. 1973. Sterculiaceae. The flora of Natal. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 39
VERDOORN, I.C. 1981. The genus Cola in southern Africa. Bothalia 13
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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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