Menodora africana Hook.

Undershrub with many slender branches from a woody base; branches sub-herbaceous, slender, about 5-25 cm tall, ridged, the ridges formed by decurrent bases of the petioles, sparsely scabrid. Leaves alternate, subopposite or opposite towards the base, subsessile to petioled, up to 1.5 cm long bipinnatisect with occasional simple or simply pinnate leaves, segments narrow, more or less subulate with inrolled scabrid margins. Inflorescence a reduced cyme with monochasial development; flowers solitary, terminal, appearing lateral when the main branch turns aside and a secondary one develops as the main axis and overtops the flower. Calyx sparsely or densely scabrid without; tube 2-3 mm long; lobes longer than the tube, multipartite, segments more or less subulate. Corolla red in bud, yellow, tinged reddish when open; tube about 4 mm long, narrow below, widening at the mouth, sparsely pilose in the throat; lobes oblong, about 1 cm long and 4.5 mm broad, rounded at the apex, mucronate, slightly narrowing towards the base. Stamens 2, filaments inserted in the corolla-tube, free for 3-4 mm, pilose where affixed to tube; anthers 3-4 mm long, 1.5 mm broad, sub-basifixed, erect, sometimes minutely mucronate. Ovary 2-celled, bilobed, ovules 10 cm each cell, axillary; style about 9 mm long; stigma small, capitate, terminal. Fruit a bilocular capsule sometimes only one locule or coccus developing, borne on a cernuous pedicel, coat parchment-like, dehiscing circumscissilely when ripe; seeds usually 2 or 76 mm each coccus, about 1 cm long, more or less oblong, outer coat reticulated.