S. NAZIMUDDIN AND M. QAISER
Landia Comm. ex Juss.
Shrub or undershrub, rarely herb, sarmentose or erect. Leaves opposite or temately whorled, ovate, petiolate; stipules interpetiolar, solitary or paired, mostly deciduous. Inflorescence terminal, corymbose, compound cyme. Flowers yellow, white or scarlet, pedicellate, bracts and bracteoles small, deciduous. Calyx-tube oblong turbinate or globose, lobes 5, deciduous, one usually enlarged into a long pedaled, petaloid, often reticulately veined leafy structure. Corolla infundibuliform, tube-silky, throat very hairy. Corolla-limbs 5. Stamens inserted on the throat or slightly below in the corolla-tube, included or subexsened, filament very short. Ovary 2-loculed, style filiform, stigma. bifid. linear, ovules numerous. Fruit a fleshy berry, generally oblong, many seeded, areolate at the top, or rarely a capsule. Seeds minute, testa reticulate.
A genus of about 200 species, mainly distributed in the tropics of Asia, Africa and Polynesia; represented here by one cultivated species.
