Keetia E.Phillips

Climbers or scandent shrubs; stems glabrous or frequently pubescent. Leaves paired, petiolate, not restricted to new growth at apex of branches; blades chartaceous or occasionally coriaceous; leaves subtending lateral branches sometimes smaller and broader than main leaves; stipules lanceolate to ovate or triangular at base and acuminate to linear above, never keeled, never with white silky hairs inside. Flowers 4–6-merous, borne in pedunculate, usually distinctly branched cymes; bracts and bracteoles often conspicuous, Calyx-tube ellipsoid to ovoid; limb equalling or sometimes exceeding tube in length, repand to dentate or less often lobed. Corolla white, cream or yellow; tube cylindrical, usually ± equalling lobes, sometimes shorter or rarely longer, typically with a ring of deflexed hairs inside; lobes reflexed, often thickened at apex but never apiculate. Stamens set at throat of corolla; filaments moderately well developed; anthers fully or partly exserted but usually not reflexed, narrowly ovate or oblong. Style long, slender, ± twice as long as the corolla-tube; stigmatic knob cylindrical, distinctly longer than wide, hollow to below apex, bifid at apex when mature (fig.131/16, p. 752); ovary 2-locular, each locule containing 1 ovule attached to upper 1/3 of the septum. Disk puberulous to pubescent or infrequently glabrous. Fruit a 2-seeded drupe, slightly to strongly bilobed, somewhat laterally flattened, slightly to strongly indented at apex, sometimes 1-seeded by abortion and asymmetrical; pyrenes woody or less often cartilaginous, usually ± ovoid with ventral face flattened, rugulose or somewhat colliculate; point of attachment on ventral face above centre or near apex; lid-like area completely or incompletely defined, either lying along ventral face above point of attachment or across apex, provided with a central crest, eventually dehiscent around circumference (fig. 132/25, 26, p. 754). Seeds ovoid, shaped at apex according to position of lid-like area in pyrene, convoluted; endosperm streaked with tanniniferous areas (resembling a ruminate endosperm, except that the testa is never invaginated) occasionally with tannin granules ± evenly dispersed or less often absent; testa thin, very finely reticulate; embryo straight with erect radicle and small cotyledons lying parallel to ventral face of seed (fig.131/25, p. 752).