Epithema 盾座苣苔屬
型態特徵
Herbs, terrestrial, annual or perennial, caulescent. Stems unbranched or with short branches. Leaves 1 to few, lower ones alternate, upper ones usually opposite, petiolate or subsessile. Cymes scorpioid, pseudoterminal or axillary, pedunculate, free or coalescent with lower part of leaf, many flowered; bract 1; flowers short-pedicelled. Calyx campanulate, 5-lobed from just above middle, lobes triangular. Corolla blue, reddish or white, tube tubular, longer than limb, limb 2-lipped, upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip 3-lobed. Disc ring-like or 2-lobed. Stamens 2, fertile, included, adnate above middle of corolla tube; filaments linear; anthers apically coherent, thecae divaricate, confluent at apex, longitudinally dehiscent; staminodes 2. Gynoecium included; ovary ovoid to globose, 1-loculed, placentas parietal, 2, projecting inward, 2-cleft; stigma subcapitate. Capsule globose, pericarp membranaceous, dehiscence circumscissile. Seeds fusiform or ellipsoid, spirally striate, without appendages.
Approximately 22 species, distributed in Africa and southwest. Asia, one species in Taiwan.
