虾子花属 xia zi hua shu

Authors: Haining Qin & Shirley A. Graham

Shrubs or small trees. Stems irregularly branching; branches pendulous. Leaves opposite, sessile or subsessile, pubescent to tomentose and abaxially orange to black glandular punctate. Inflorescences condensed axillary branchlets, rarely flowers solitary. Flowers 6-merous, slightly zygomorphic. Floral tube red-orange, cyathiform, slightly constricted at level of stamen insertion; sepals very short, alternating at sinus with minute, thickened epicalyx segments. Petals red, pink, or white, small. Stamens 12, in two whorls, alternating in length. Ovary ellipsoidal, sessile or shortly stipitate; style thicker than staminal filaments, ultimately long-exserted; stigma punctiform. Capsule thin walled, translucent at maturity, irregularly dehiscent, rarely loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds many, narrowly obpyramidal, small. 2n = 16.

Two species: one in Africa and the Arabian peninsula, one in SE Asia including China.

Lower Taxon

• Woodfordia fruticosa (Linnaeus) Kurz