Coutoubea Aubl.

Herbs, rarely trailing, erect, annual or perennial (?), simple to branched, the branches usually strongly ascending, terete. Leaves cauline, opposite or rarely ternate, the lamina lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, sessile, becoming amplexicaul, acute to long-acute at the apex, membranous to coria-ceous. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, spicate or racemose, dense to long-interrupted, many-flowered. Flowers 4 (-5)-merous, small, sessile to shortly pedicellate; calyx campanulate, deeply lobed, the lobes lanceolate-ovate, scarious-marginate; corolla white, often tinged with blue or purple, the tube short-cylin-dric, the lobes lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, spreading; stamens inserted near the apex of the tube, the filaments filiform, spreading at the base, the anthers oblong, erect, bifid; ovary narrowly ovoid, ovary 1-locular, the placenta strongly intruding, the style filiform, the stigma bilamellate, the lobes oblong, flattened. Capsules surrounded by the marcescent calyx and/or corolla, ovoid-ellipsoid, septicidally 2-valvate; seeds small, numerous, globose, foveolate, appearing re-ticulate. Pollen grains united in tetrahedral tetrads, 55-64 ,u; single grains 3-