Description: Shrubs or annual herbs.
Leaves alternate or the lower opposite, margins entire or toothed.
Spikes terminal, often dense, short or elongate; flowers sessile, white, yellow or rose; bracts longer than calyx. Calyx spathaceous, membranous or hyaline. Corolla tube slender, divided to about the middle; limb expanded into a flat or concave 4-lobed limb, occasionally with a small lobe in the fissure of the tube. Stamens 4; filaments short. Ovary 2-locular; style entire.
Fruit rarely separating into 2 mericarps.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 30 species, chiefly southern Africa. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
This genus is often included in the Scrophulariaceae.
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Hebenstretia dentata |
|
