Apocynaceae subfamilies Asclepiadoideae and Secamonoideae - Milkweed and stapeliad family

Perennial herbs or shrubs, sometimes twining or scrambling, often succulent and often with milky sap. Stipules usually 0. Leaves mainly opposite or whorled, rarely alternate, simple and usually entire. Flowers in umbels or cymes or, rarely, in racemes, actinomorphic, bisexual. Calyx usually of 5 free sepals, sometimes 5-lobed. Corolla gamopetalous, very variable; lobes 5, sometimes connate at tips. Corona usually arising from or near base of the staminal column, in 1-3 series, consisting of 5 free or connate lobes or processes, rarely 0. Filaments united into a staminal column, often short; anthers with horny wings; pollen in waxy masses attached by caudicles to a horny carrier. Ovaries 2, superior, each 1-locular. Fruit of 2 follicles, sometimes only one developing. Seeds usually with marginal wing and a tuft of long, silky hairs at apex.

We are also very grateful to David Goyder of Kew who revised and updated the taxa on this site.

Comment: The 2 subfamilies Asclepiadoideae and Secamonoideae contain the genera which were formerly included in the family ASCLEPIADACEAE. These are nowadays combined with other subfamilies, containing the former APOCYNACEAE sensu stricto and PERIPLOCACEAE, into one large family under the name APOCYNACEAE. However, as the genera in these 2 subfamilies can be clearly distinguished, it is preferred to still deal with them in this separate list.

Worldwide: 248 genera and 2,800 species, tropical and warm areas, especially Africa.

Zimbabwe: 35 genera and 172 taxa.