Bertiera Aubl.

Small trees or shrubs, rarely lianas. Leaves shortly petiolate; petioles normally channelled above; blades thin or scarcely coriaceous, mid-and lateral nerves usually prominent beneath; stipules persistent, usually connate above the nodes for a short distance. Flowers of moderate size (rarely very small), borne in terminal, spicate thyrsoid panicles, scorpioid cymes or spherical compact heads, very occasionally axillary (not in Flora area). Calyx with limb produced above the tube, cup-shaped and frequently wider than the tube, truncate or 5-toothed or-lobed. Corolla with hairy throat, often with the walls of tube toughened or thick; tube exceeding the calyx-limb; lobes (4–)5, usually acuminate or apiculate, contorted in bud. Anthers (4–)5, subsessile, attached by very short filaments near the base, included, linear, sagittate or bilobed at the base, the connective extended into an apiculate apex. Ovary 2-locular with the numerous ovules inserted on a thickened placenta; disc glabrous, fleshy, cup-shaped, or annular; stigma borne on style ± club-shaped, formed from 2 flattened appressed branches (seldom separating), with 10 membranous linear vanes which fit between the anthers in the bud. Fruit indehiscent, ovoid or globose, often coriaceous; calyx persistent; pedicels sometimes accrescent. Seeds red-brown to black, angular, rugulose or granulose, numerous.