8285.000 Gardenia J. Ellis

Shrubs or trees, with branches often in threes and young parts often glutinous. Stipules sheathing, often truncate. Leaves opposite or 3-nate, with or without domatia. Flowers large, terminal or pseudoaxillary, solitary or in few-flowered fascicles, white, turning yellow to brown with age. Corolla tube funnel-shaped or cylindric; lobes 5-12. Ovary 1-locular with 2-9 parietal placentas. Fruit spherical or ellipsoid, usually with a thick fibrous or woody wall. Seeds numerous, fused into a pulpy solid mass.

Derivation of name: Named after Alexander Garden, a medical doctor from Aberdeen, who was one of Linnaeus' correspondents

Worldwide: c. 60 species in the tropical and warm Old World

Zimbabwe: 2 cultivated taxa.