Description:

• Twining vines to procumbent perennial herbs; stem glabrous or young stem puberulous
• Leaves ovate, somewhat fleshy
• Inflorescence an axillary, pedunculate panicle of spikes; bracteoles 2, subtending flower, minute or distinctly developed, persistent, thin, ovate to triangular, free, entire to erose at margin, obtuse to acute at apex
• Flowers bisexual, sessile, partly sunken into rachis
• Sepals shorter than petals or equally long, patent to erect, ovate to elliptic, greenish white
• Petals connate only at base, green or yellow-green
• Stamens: filaments connate at base; anthers with thecae free at apex
• Ovary globose to pyriform, free; ovule on a short basal stalk; style 3-partite ± to base; stigmas linear
• Fruit a nutlet, smooth and often shiny, with 6 longitudinal ribs, on a swollen, fleshy, reddish to purplish receptacle
• Seed erect, subglobose; embryo spirally twisted
• x = 11 (aneuploids)

Classification Notes:

• This generic treatment is based largely on Basella paniculata, which differs markedly from other species of the genus and is perhaps better placed in a genus of its own (Eriksson 1996)

Nomenclature:

• Basella L.
  • Linnaeus: 272 (1753)
  • Linnaeus: 133 (1754)
  • Lamarck: 381 (1783)
  • Jussieu: 84 (1789)
  • Hooker: 76 (1880)
  • Volkens: 126 (1893)
  • Franz: 25 (1908)
  • Baker & Clarke: 94 (1909) (under Chenopodiaceae)
  • Ulbrich: 266 (1934)
  • Verdcourt: 498 (1964)
  • Verdcourt: 1 (1968)
  • Stannard: 161 (1988)
  • Sperling & Bittrich: 145 (1993)
  • Eriksson: 59 (1996)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: ± 5; 1 species: Basella alba L. (= Basella rubra L.) widespread in Africa and Asia and elsewhere cultivated for its edible leaves and locally naturalised in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide; 3 endemic to Madagascar
• Southern Africa: Species 1: Basella paniculata Volkens, endemic to eastern Africa and southern Africa, KwaZulu-Natal