Alternative names: Not Applicable

Description:
Trees, shrubs or woody lianes; leaves opposite, pinnate or digitate, rarely (outside S. Aust.) in whorls and simple, usually with glands on the lower side; stipules 0.

Flowers each subtended by a bract and 1 or 2 bracteoles, bisexual, in terminal thyrses or racemes; calyx 5-lobed or (outside S. Aust.) spathe-like; corolla tubular, 5-lobed, often bilabiate; stamens attached to the base of the corolla tube, 4, in pairs of unequal length, often with a fifth reduced to a staminode, with anthers 2-celled, introrsely dehiscing by slits; disc usually present, annular; ovary superior, 2-celled, with numerous ovules borne on the septum, with a single terminal style and 2 sensitive (?always) stigmatic lobes.

Fruit a loculicidal or (outside Australia) septicidal 2-valved capsule; seeds many, usually with thin hyaline lateral wings.

Distribution:  About 120 genera with 800 species, mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of the world; in Australia 5 genera with about 9 species, extending from the tropical zone into temperate eastern and central arid regions. (C. G. G. J. van Steenis (1977) FI. Malesiana 1, 8:114-186.)

Biology: No text

Author: Prepared by W. R. Barker