Cystostemon Balf. f.

Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs. Leaves alternate, entire. Inflorescence usually a large panicle or, simple or few-flowered. Calyx 5-lobed, divided almost to the base, sometimes accrescent in fruit. Corolla tube short, cylindric or slightly funnel-shaped, without scales in throat; lobes 5, usually much longer than the tube. Ovary 4-lobed. Fruit of 1–4 nutlets attached to the flat gynobase only by the base.

Worldwide: 15 species, two confined to south west Asia, the remainder in Angola, East Africa Zambia.

Zambia: 3 taxa.