Holmskioldia sanguinea Illustration Credit: Fauzia

Straggling or climbing shrubs with opposite, exstipulate, entire or dentate leaves and usually axillary racemes or cymes. Calyx-tube turbinate, membranous, mostly red, somewhat truncate at apex, enlarged in fruit. Corolla-tube cylindric, curved; limb 2-lipped, upper lip 2-lobed, lower 3-lobed. Stamens with exserted anthers, epipetalous. Ovary 2-carpellary, 4-loculed, with I ovule in each. locule; style filiform with 2-fid stigma. Drupe subfleshy, obovoid, enclosed by enlarged, persistent, coloured calyx; seeds oblong.

About 6 species, chiefly of tropical Africa and Asia; represented here by a single cultivated species.

Lower Taxon

• Holmskioldia sanguinea Retz.