6999.000 Operculina Silva Manso

Large herbaceous twiners. Stems, peduncles and petioles often winged. Leaves petioled; lamina entire, angular often cordate at the base. Flowers usually large, in one to few flowered axillary cymes. Bracts often large, caducous. Sepals 5, large, pergameneous to coriaceous, mostly glabrous, often ventricose, often enlarged in fruit and ultimately with an irregularly lacerate margin. Corolla broadly funnel-shaped or campanulate, white or yellow, usually glabrous. Ovary bilocular, each loculus 2-ovuled. Fruit capsule large, the outer layer splitting around the middle, the upper or lid separating from the lower part, and the inner layer bursting irregularly. Seeds up to 4, pilose or glabrous, blackish.

Worldwide: 15 species throughout the tropics.

Mozambique: 1 taxon.