6560.000 Allamanda L.

Erect or climbing shrubs, with milky latex. Leaves in whorls of 3-4, sometimes opposite, entire. Flowers bisexual, large and showy. Inflorescences of lax few-flowered racemes at the ends of the branches. Calyx deeply 5-lobed. Corolla campanulate-funnelform, yellow, pink or purple; tube cylindric with hairs or hairy scales at throat. Stamens inserted at mouth of corolla tube; anthers not united with the stigma. Ovary 1-locular; ovules many. Fruit a spiny capsule, splitting into 2 valves. Seeds many, flattened, winged.

Derivation of name: after Dr Allamand, professor of natural history at the University of Leyden in the last part of the 18th century.

Worldwide: 12 species in tropical America

Zimbabwe: 3 cultivated taxa.