7450.000 Brunfelsia L.

Shrubs or small trees, evergreen. Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate; lamina oblong, base narrowed, cuneate or blunt, margins entire, apex acuminate to rounded. Inflorescence cincinnal cymes, or reduced to solitary flowers; terminal or axillary; 1 –many-flowered bracts, 1-3 per flower, caduceus. Flowers white, pink turning yellow, purple fading to mauve or white; calyx gamosepalous, tubular to campanulate, green or purplish, 5-dentate, teeth persistent; corolla gamopetalous, slightly zygomorphic, tube cylindric. Fruit capsular or sub-baccate. Seeds few to numerous, reddish brown.

Derivation of name: for Otto Brunfels (c. 1488-1534), German physician and botanist.

Worldwide: 40 species in tropical America.

Zimbabwe: 4 cultivated taxa.