17. Graptophyllum Nees in Wallich, Pl. Asiat. Rar. 3:102. 1832. in DC., Prodr. 11: 327. 1847; Clarke in Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 4: 545. 1885.
KAMAL AKHTAR MALIK & ABDUL GHAFOOR
Evergreen glabrous shrubs with opposite, entire or dentate, coloured or variegated leaves. Flowers pedicellate, red or purple, in short, terminal or solitary axillary panicle of subsessile cynics; bracts shorter than calyx, not 4-ranked; bracteoles very small. Calyx small, shallowly 5-lobed, lobes equal, linear-lanceolate. Corolla cylindrical-tubular, tube curved, limb 2-lipped, lobes imbricate, upper lip shortly 2-lobed, lower one 3-lobed. Stamens 2, fertile; stami¬nodes 2, small; anthers oblong, bithecous, thecae parallel, muticous. Ovary bilocular, each locule 2-ovuled; style filiform, scarcely bind. Capsule stipitate, clavate, 2-4-seeded. Seeds borne on hook-like amides, compressed, orbicular.
A small genus of c. 10 species, distributed in West Africa, New Guinea, Australia and Polynesia: Represented by a single cultivated species in Pakistan.
