Leaves shortly petiolate; stipules ± completely divided into 2 lobes, subpersistent or eventually falling
Flowers solitary or in lax, terminal, rather large, sweetly scented cymes
Calyx 4-6-lobed; lobes ± leafy, ovate, to oblong, elliptic or lanceolate; tube turbinate or oblong
Corolla 4-6-lobed, white, with dense yellow hairs around narrow throat forming a star-shaped eye, hypocrateriform; lobes variable, usually finely puberulous, spreading; tube slender, adpressed hairy outside, densely hairy at throat
Stamens 4-6, situated in tube, included; filaments short; anthers linear
Disc small, swollen
Ovary 2-locular; ovules many; style slender, with 2 linear, thickened stigma arms just exserted in long-styled flowers, but only reaching to ± halfway up tube in short-styled flowers
Fruit slightly fleshy but soon dry, indehiscent, oblong-ellipsoid to subglobose, crowned by persistent calyx lobes, many-seeded
Seeds adhering in 2 masses; strongly foveolate, pitted
x = 11 (polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Heinsia DC.
Candolle: 390 (1830)
Hiern: 80 (1877)
Phillips: 728 (1951)
Bridson & Verdcourt: 476 (1988)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species 5, tropical Africa
Southern Africa: Species 1: Heinsia crinita (Afzel.) G.Taylor subsp. parviflora (K.Schum. & Krause) Verdc., Northern Province
References:
BRIDSON, D.M. & VERDCOURT, B. 1988. Flora of tropical East Africa. Rubiaceae (part 2)
CANDOLLE, A.P. DE. 1830. Prodromus 4. Treuttel & Würtz, Paris
HIERN, W.P. 1877. Rubiaceae. Flora of tropical Africa 3
PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
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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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