Nuxia Comm. ex Lam.

Loganiaceae, E. A. Bruce and J. Lewis. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1960

Morphology General Habit

Shrubs or small trees, glandular and ± hairy

Morphology Leaves

Leaves petiolate; stipules reduced to a mere line

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers 4-merous, small and numerous, in cymose panicles

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx glandular, often externally; lobes valvate, persistent

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla-tube ± cylindrical, circumscissile just above the persistent base; lobes imbricate in aestivation

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Stamens inserted just below mouth of corolla-tube, longly exserted; filaments filiform

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Ovary

Ovary 2-locular; ovules numerous in rows on axil placentas

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Capsule ovoid or obloid, septicidally dehiscent and the valves halving above

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds small and numerous; endosperm fleshy; embryo straight.

Loganiaceae, A. J. M. Leeuwenberg. Flora Zambesiaca 7:1. 1983

Morphology General Habit

Shrubs or trees.

Morphology Stem

Branches unarmed, with fissured bark, not lenticellate. Trunk often fluted.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves opposite, ternate, quaternate, or in some lateral branches occasionally alternate, petiolate (or only in N.gracilis often sessile).

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences

Inflorescence terminal, thyrsoid, but often dichotomously branched. Lower bracts mostly leafy, the others small, often scale–like. Ultimate branches topped by solitary flowers or by heads of three or more flowers which may be globose.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Flowers 4–merous, actinomorphic except for the more or less irregularly lobed calyx.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx

Calyx campanulate to cylindrical, 4–lobed; lobes much shorter than the tube, triangular, acute or rarely obtuse or rounded, entire or sometimes tridenate (only observed in N. floribunda and N. gracilis), erect or suberect, sometimes two or two pairs coherent or partially united; flowers with almost regularly 4–lobed calyx or the irregularly lobed calyx in a single inflorescence, with minute glandular hairs and often also simple or branched hairs; inner side mostly sericeous to appressed–pubescent.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla

Corolla mostly white or creamy, circumscissile, outside with some minute glandular hairs at the base of the lobes and the apex of the tube; inside with a pilose or villose ring of mostly recurved hairs in the throat and with minute glandular hairs in the tube except for its glabrous base (hairs in corolla throat or in tube may be absent on a few occasions, but in those cases never both kinds simultaneously); tube slightly shorter or less often longer than the calyx, cylindrical; lobes oblong, recurved from above the base and there convex and often with a minute callosity, concave and rounded to acute at the apex, entire.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens

Stamens well exserted, inserted at the mouth of the corolla tube; filaments only at the very base vilose in a line with the group of hairs on the corolla throat or slightly above or entirely glabrous, straight or curved, geniculate at the base only in N. floribunda; anthers glabrous, 0–5–2 mm. long; cells 2, parallel when young, conspicuously divergent after the pollen has been shed, confluent at the apex, dehiscent throughout by a longitudinal slit.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Pistil

Pistil: ovary superior, obcordoid, ovoid, or ellipsoid, mostly slightly laterally compressed, appressedly pubescent or hirto–pubescent, glabrous only in N. floribunda, at the very base, however, always glabrous, surrounded by a narrow disk–like ring formed by the base of the shed corolla, 2–celled; style well exserted, glabrous; stigma small, capitate or occasionally slightly bilobed.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Ovary Placenta

In each cell one axile peltate placenta with many ovules attached to the middle of the septum.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Capsule about as long as and included in the persisting calyx or up to about one–third longer, with about the same indumentum as the ovary, bivalved, septicidal, retuse or rounded at the apex; often later longitudinally cleft, the capsule becoming 4–valved.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds small, medium brown, fusiform, longitudinally striate or reticulate–striate.