Description: Shrubs, glabrous or hairy.
Leaves alternate, or subopposite on flowering branches, simple, margins entire, petiolate.
Flowers solitary or in clusters, axillary, bisexual, actinomorphic. Calyx campanulate, 5-lobed, persistent; lobes triangular. Corolla campanulate, 5-lobed. Stamens 5, equal, inserted near base of corolla tube; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Ovary 2-locular.
Fruit a semi-succulent berry, enclosed by inflated calyx.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 10 species, northern Africa and from Mediterranean to India. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by B. J. Conn
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Withania somnifera |
|
