Herbs, mostly rigid, erect or climbing. Stem and branches diffuse, quadrangular. Leaves (2-) 4-10 in a whorl, cordate, lanceolate or obovate, rarely linear. Inflorescence of axillary and terminal cymes or panicles. Flowers small. Calyx-tube ovoid or globose, enclosing the ovary and adherent to it, lobes obsolete. Corolla subcampanulate or rotate; lobes 5, valvate. Stamens 5, included in the corolla-tube, rarely 4 or 6, filaments very short, anthers somewhat exserted. Disc annular. Ovary bilocular or 1-locator by abortion; styles 2 or bifid; stigma capitate; ovules solitary in each locule, attached near the base of septum. Fruit a berry, didymous or globose by suppression of one carpel, fleshy; seeds suberect, adhering to the pericarp, testa membranous.
A genus of c. 60 species, distributed in South Africa and temperate Asia; represented in Pakistan by 7 species.
Doubtful species
Rubia dolichophylla Schrenk in Bull. Phys. Math. Acad. Peterb. 2: 115. 1844; Pojark, l.c. 404; Ehrend., l.c. 139.
Plant perennial, herbaceous. Stem and branches retrorsely aculeolate or scabrid. Leaves 4(-6) in a whorl, coriaceous, narrowly lanceolate, margin retrorsely scabrid. Cymes axillary, longer than leaves, many-flowered.
Type: Described from Soongaria.
A-7 Chitral: Mastuj, Yarkhun Vy., Kerstan 2050 (not seen).
Distribution: Russia (Soongaria) and Pakistan.
Ehrendorfer, l.c. 139 has recorded this species and cited the only specimen Kerstan 2050 from Chitral-Pakistan. We have not come across any specimen of this axon. However, the identity of this taxon seems to be doubtful as Ehrendorfer mentioned himself 2-opposite leaves in the above mentioned specimen, a character usually found in Rubia tibetica Hook. f., whereas in Rubia dolichophylla Schrenk, the leaves are always 4-(6) in a whorl.
Excluded species
Rubia gedrosiaca Bornm. in Beih. Bet. Centr. 59. B. 297. 1939; Ehrend., l.c. 139; R.R. Stewart, l.c. 689.
R. R. Stewart, l.c. included this species on the authority of Ehrendorfer (P.C.) who mentions its distribution in his specific key in Baluchistan and Afghanistan, but he neither gave any definite locality nor cited any specimen from our area. We have also failed to collect or find any specimen from Pakistan.
