Description:

• Shrublets, undershrubs, or shrubs, often ericoid
• Leaves opposite or alternate
• Flowers usually in terminal heads or clusters, sometimes solitary or in short spikes; bracts present or 0
• Calyx 4- or 5-lobed; tube cylindric to narrowly campanulate, usually hairy and articulated near base; lobes much shorter than tube, mainly oblong or obovate
• Petals 0, same number, twice, or sometimes three times as many as calyx lobes, membranous or fleshy, flat or terete, sometimes hairy or surrounded by hairs, smaller than calyx lobes
• Stamens usually twice as many as calyx lobes, in 2 series; upper row in mouth of calyx tube, or rarely 0 or aborted; other row in throat or lower; filaments usually shorter than anthers
• Disc 0 or surrounding ovary
• Ovary 1-locular, with single ovule; style lateral, included; stigma usually simple, sometimes flattened or 2-lobed, usually penicillate
• Fruit dry, enclosed in persistent base of calyx tube
• Seeds small
• x = 9 (7)

Classification Notes:

• Consensus of opinion favours the reduction in the number of genera, mainly because of the variable nature of the differentiating characters

Nomenclature:

• Gnidia L.
  • Linnaeus: 358 (1753)
  • Wright: 42 (1915)
  • Domke: 134 (1934)
  • Phillips: 61 (1944)
  • Peterson: 466 (1959)
  • Bond & Goldblatt: 429 (1984)
  • Hilliard & Burtt: 182 (1987)
• Lasiosiphon Fresen.
  • Fresenius: 602 (1838)
  • Pearson: 227 (1910)
  • Wright: 69 (1915)
  • Domke: 133 (1934)
  • Phillips: 61 (1944)
• Arthrosolen C.A.Mey.
  • Meyer: 359 (1843)
  • Pearson: 234 (1910)
  • Wright: 63 (1915)
  • Phillips: 61 (1944)
• Pseudognidia E.Phillips
  • Phillips: 63 (1944)
• Basutica E.Phillips
  • Phillips: 64 (1944)
• Struthiolopsis E.Phillips
  • Phillips: 64 (1944)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Species ± 140, mainly Africa, few extending to Madagascar and India
• Southern Africa: Species ± 97, widespread in Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape