Description: Twiners or climbers, cystoliths absent; branches sometimes grooved.
Leaves usually with base cordate, hastate or sagittate.
Inflorescences axillary, of 1–4-flowered clusters, often forming terminal racemes; flowers long-pedunculate; bracteoles leaf-like, erect, enclosing corolla tube. Calyx much shorter than corolla, entire or 12–20-lobed. Corolla twisted in bud; lobes equal, spreading. Stamens 4. Ovary with 2 ovules per loculus.
Capsule woody, with a long apical beak; seeds usually 4, with a smooth hollow on one side.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 90 species, chiefly Africa, also India to Malesia and Australia. Australia: 4 species (1 species native, 3 species naturalized), Qld, N.S.W., N.T, W.A.
Sometimes separated as the family Thunbergiaceae.
Text by J. Everett
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Thunbergia alata |
|
