轮冠木属 lun guan mu shu

Shrubs. Stems numerous, prostrate or wandlike, glabrous or sericeous; branches thin, straight. Leaves alternate, fascicled at nodes, short petiolate or sessile, entire or inconspicuously dentate. Cymes terminal, sparse, small. Calyx 5-lobed; lobes overlapping in bud, lanceolate. Corolla purple-red or pink, subcampanulate, 5-lobed; tube short; lobes spreading, overlapping in bud, oblong to orbicular. Stamens included or exserted; filaments glabrous; anthers oblong. Ovary ovoid or oblong, 4-loculed; ovules 1 per locule. Style terminal, undivided; stigma enlarged, somewhat 2-cleft, subpeltate. Drupes red, endocarp well developed, dividing into 4 1-seeded pyrenes. Seeds oblong, without endosperm.

Three species: Brazil, Africa, tropical Asia; one species in China.

Lower Taxon

• Rotula aquatica Loureiro