Description: Shrubs, subshrubs.
Leaves opposite or verticillate, sessile or shortly petiolate, often distinctly crenate or coarsely serrate, but sometimes entire, distinctly arcrid when crushed.
Inflorescence terminal thryses or axillary cymes, usually lax. Flowers blue to whitish, asymmetrical in bud, lobes 5, anterior lobe much larger and coloured differently from the other 4 lobes. Stamens parallel, long-exserted. Stigma lobes frequently unequal.
Fruit a 4-lobed drupe, or drupaceous schizocarp, each lobe containing a 1-seeded pyrene.
Distribution and occurrence: Widespread thoughout sub-Saharan Africa, Madagascar, Indian Ocean islands, and tropical Asia. Australia 1 species introduced on north coast of NSW.
Text by Louisa Murray
Taxon concept: Steane and Mabberley (1998) Novon 8(2) p204-206
| One species in NSW: Rotheca myricoides |
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