Geniostoma J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.

Shrubs or small trees. Indument consisting of simple hairs. Twigs terete or quadrangular, sometimes 4-winged. Leaves petioled or rarely sessile, at the base with a short ocrea. Inflorescences axillary or sometimes (partly) ramiflorous, cy-mose, often pseudo-umbellate or glomerulous, sometimes uniflorous. Bracteoles present, mostly minute. Flowers 5-merous (exceptionally in some flowers 4-merous), gynodioecious. Sepals usually only confluent at the very base, inside usually with colleters at the base, thick, thinned out towards the almost always ciliate margin. Corolla campanulate to rotate, (greenish-)white, tube thin-fleshy, lobes thicker, imbricate or contorted in bud, outside glabrous or short-pubescent, inside glabrous or densely woolly pubescent, especially in the mouth, sometimes also near the base. Stamens inserted in the mouth, exserted, recurved beyond anthesis; filaments usually short; anthers 2-celled, often with a distinct appendage (especially distinct in female flowers). Ovary 2-celled, with ∞ ovules; style often very short; stigma club-shaped or ellipsoid to globular, about as large as the ovary. Capsules 2-valved, septicidal or septifragal, black or possibly in some species green when ripe. Seeds ∞, ellipsoid to subglobular, intruded on the hilar side, minutely warty, brown to black, embedded in a juicy yellow to red pulp; endosperm thick, chartaceous.

Small substage trees in the rain-forest and heliophilous shrubs in more open places, also in mossy forests, under everwet conditions, from sea-level up to c. 2800 m.