Shrubs or small trees, sometimes scrambling or climbing. Spines present in a few species. Leaves opposite, petiolate; domatia present or not. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, 4-5-merous, borne in pedunculate to subsessile few-many-flowered cymes. Calyx with linear to triangular lobes. Corolla white or yellowish; tube broadly cylindric; lobes reflexed or less often erect. Style exceeding the corolla tube, glabrous. Ovary 2(-3)-locular. Fruit a 2(-3)-seeded drupe, sometimes flattened; apex shallowly or deeply notched. Pyrenes ellipsoid to ovoid or obovoid, usually rugulose. Worldwide: A poorly defined genus of c. 100 species in tropical Africa, South Africa, Madagascar and extending to Asia Malawi: 2 taxa. The larvae of the following species of insect eat species of this genus: |
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