Description: Climbing shrubs or herbs.
Leaves alternate, pinnately compound with terminal leaflets modified into tendrils.
Inflorescence axillary or terminal, 1–3-flowered. Flowers ± actinomorphic, bisexual. Calyx 5-lobed, tube short. Corolla campanulate, 5-lobed, imbricate, lobes rounded to linear. Stamens 5, exserted, epipetalous near base of corolla, filaments bearded below, undivided, flat; anthers dorsifixed, 2-locular and dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary superior, 3-locular; style simple; stigma trifid; ovules 1–many per loculus, placentation axile.
Fruit a capsule.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 18 species, tropical America. Australia: 1 species (naturalised).
Formerly in Cobaeaceae.
Text by S.M. Hastings, Flora of New South Wales Vol. 3: 384 (1992), in Cobaeaceae.
Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed March 2017)
| One species in NSW: Cobaea scandens |
|
