Bouchea auct. non Cham. (1790): C.B. Clarke
Perennial herb or undershrubs, erect to subspreading, often densely pubescent. Leaves opposite or subopposite, ovate to ovate-oblong, petiolate, usually dentate and coarsely veined, sub-pubescent. Inflorescence terminal, spicate, often elongated in fruit. Flowers sessile or subsessile, bracteate, usually white, zygomorphic, hermaphrodite. Calyx-tube 5-ribbed, obliquely truncate to minutely 5-toothed, pubescent, slightly enlarged below and splitting lengthwise outside in fruit. Corolla-tube exceeding the calyx, cylindrical; limb lobes 5, subequal, short, spreading. Stamens 4, didynamous, included, inserted above the middle of corolla-tube; anthers ovate, dithecous, subsessile or on very short filaments. Ovary 2-loculed with 1-2 ovules in each locule; style filiform, with somewhat oblique, sub-bilobed stigma. Fruit dry, enclosed within the persistent calyx, separating into 2, oblong, glabrous, smooth pyrenes.
About 20 species, mostly Afro-Asian; only 1 species is found here.
It differs from Bouchea Cham., a new world genus, by its fruits enclosed within the slightly inflated calyx (not equalling or exceeding the calyx). Svensonia Moldenke, with laterally winged or ribbed pyrenes, is hardly different from this genus.
