Annual or perennial herbs, shrublets or shrubs. Stipules lateral. Leaves alternate, simple (in ours), petiolate. Sepals 5, usually linear and with a short horn just behind the apex, stellately hairy. Petals 5, yellow or orange. Stamens 4-40. Ovary 2-5-locular. Fruit a capsule, usually spherical (rarely ovoid), echinate or setose.
Note: mature fruits are essential in naming these species. The measurements of fruit diameters include the aculei.
Worldwide: 70 species in the tropics Botswana: 5 taxa. The larvae of the following species of insect eat species of this genus: |
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