Thottea Rottb.

Herbs, woody at the base, or undershrubs, rarely shrubs, single or tufted, simple or (sparsely) branched, erect, sometimes rhizomatous or scrambling. Stems bearing small, bract-like leaves in the lower ⅔-½ then one smaller leaf, followed by normal foliage leaves; (young) branches or branchlets sometimes zigzag. Leaves entire; petiole grooved above. Flowers actinomorphic, axillary or subradical, solitary or a few on short branches, in spicate or racemose, cymose or corymbose, or cincinnal, usually few-flowered inflorescences. Bract usually opposite to the flower. Flower buds (not including the ovary) often distinctly triangular in top view. Perianth broad-campanulate, urceolate, bowl-or cup-shaped, 3-lobed; lobes valvate, caducous. Disk (?) 0, rarely cupular, adnate to the perianth tube with the apical part free and ring-like (e.g. T. tomentosa). Stamens 6-c. 36 (-46) in 1 or 2, rarely 3 or 4 whorls, free or adnate to the style column. Ovary 4-angular, 4-celled; style (2-) 5-20-lobed, lobes linear or linear-lanceolate. Capsules usually siliquiform, elongate, variable in length, 5-10 mm wide, ± 4-angular, sometimes cruciform in cross-section, dehiscing apically towards the base, or splitting from the central part towards both ends. Seeds oblong, ellipsoid, or broadly ovoid, usually 3-angular in cross-section, rarely boat-shaped, often coated with remains of the placenta; testa crustaceous or hard, usually (transversally) rugose, or deeply furrowed, rarely rather smooth or sparse granular.

Often growing sporadically, occasionally locally abundant, in shady places in tropical lowland forest, rarely up to c. 1200 m.