Callichilia Stapf

Shrubs or lianas, glabrous, with white latex; branches unarmed, lenticellate; trunk dichotomously branched. Leaves decussate, those of a pair equal or unequal, subsessile or petiolate. Inflorescences 1–2 in the forks of branches, pendulous, pedunculate, congested, cymose; bracts. Flowers actinomorphic, often fragrant; sepals connate at the extreme base only, imbricate, much shorter than the corolla, inside with 1–4 rows of minute glands near the base; corolla tube glabrous except for pilose ridges leading downward from the base of the filaments; tube cylindric, wider in the upper part; lobes membranaceous, with two apices, one acute and one rounded. Fruit berry-like, many-seeded, the two mericarps free, or (only in C. orientalis) semi-syncarpous; wall thin. Seeds ovoid, testa reticulate and deeply pitted; endosperm copious, surround­ing the straight embryo.

Worldwide: 7 species in tropical Africa

Mozambique: 1 taxon.