Home
Stamens included or in long–staminate flowers often exserted, equal or unequal; filaments pubescent or sometimes glabrous (M. microphylla, M. brunonis), inserted at one–quarter to one–third from the base of the corolla tube; anthers orbicular or oblong; cells 2, discrete, divergent at the base, dehiscent throughout by a longitudinal slit.
Ovary superior, ovoid, usually with 2 impressed lines, 2–celled, with 2 ovules in each cell; style simple, shorter or longer than the stamens, when longer slightly exserted, deciduous, minutely pubescent with glandular hairs; stigma twice dichotomously branched, lobes narrow, pubescent (hairs glandular).
Corolla white, sometimes pale yellow, orange, or red, yellow at the base or not, infundibuliform, 2·5–9 x as long as the calyx; tube about 3–5 x as long as the lobes; lobes imbricate in the bud, spreading, orbicular or nearly so, rounded, entire or sometimes obscurely sinuate–dentate.
Leaves opposite, those of a pair equal or subequal, shortly petiolate; lamina mostly papyraceous when dry, ovate to very narrowly elliptic, variable in shape and size, on lateral branches often smaller, entire or obscurely sinuate–dentate, pinnately veined; veins conspicuous.
Sepals green, connate at the base up to half their length, equal or unequal, ovate to very narrowly elliptic, obtuse to subulate at the apex, entire or sometimes obscurely sinuate–dentate.
Fruit capsular, obcordate, bilobed, or occasionally ellipsoid, flattened, with an impressed line in the middle, loculicidal, 4–valved; valves hinging on the septum; cells with 1–2 seeds.
Seeds plano–convex (not so if fruit ellipsoid), obliquely ovate to orbicular, pale brown, dull and densely appressed–pilose (African species).
Inflorescence axillary or terminal, usually on short lateral branches, mostly obliquely and incompletely dichasial, i–many–flowered.
Stipules membranaceous, usually triangular, entire, those of a pair united, or all fused into a short ocrea.
Shrubs, undershrubs, or sometimes lianas, with simple hairs or nearly glabrous.
Ovules attached to the base of the septum.
Stems much branched; twigs usually thin.
Bracts mostly small and sepal–like.
Flowers 5–merous, dimorphic.