Helinus
E. Meyer ex Endl., nom. cons.
Unarmed, scandent, cirrhose shrubs. Leaves alternate, uppermost sometimes
much reduced and bract-like, entire, petiolate; stipules linear, caducous.
Inflorescence axillary, solitary or umbellate; peduncles slender, often longer
than the subtending leaves; pedicels short to elongate, filiform. Calyx lobes
5, deltoid, often with membranous white margins; tube broadly campanulate
or obconic, adnate to the ovary. Petals 5, yellowish or greenish white,
oblanceolate, cucullate, arcuate, ascending during anthesis. Stamens as many
as petals; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscing longitudinally. Disc flat, tilling the calyx
tube, massive, thickened, adherent to the ovary. Ovary inferior, 3-carpellary,
3-loculed; style 3-fid. Capsules schizocarpic, coriaceous; endocarp thin,
crustaceous, separating into 3 mericarps, each of which releases its seeds by
a sudden opening of the ventral suture.
Africa and Indian subcontinent; 6 species, 1 in India.
Grows in thickets and wooded grasslands, forest margins, and in dry open woody vegetation, ascending up to 1200 m. Also found in ravines, bank of streams and shady places, occasionally in valley.
Africa and Indian subcontinent; 6 species, 1 in India.
Grows in thickets and wooded grasslands, forest margins, and in dry open woody vegetation, ascending up to 1200 m. Also found in ravines, bank of streams and shady places, occasionally in valley.
