Wendlandia Bartl. ex DC

Tu, Tieyao, Cai, Jie, Razafimandimbison, Sylvain G., Hu, Xiaoying, Xia, Qian, Yang, Hong, Gu, Shiran, Huang, Tianyi, Zhao, Zhongtao, Shi, Miaomiao, Wang, Xiangping, Li, Shijin, Xie, Peiwu, Wen, Jun & Zhang, Dianxiang, 2024, Biphyly of the genus Wendlandia and establishment of a new tribe Clavistigmeae and a new genus Clavistigma of Rubiaceae from Asia, Biological Diversity CLXVI (CLXVI), pp. 1-17 : 12-13

5.1 | Wendlandia Bartl. ex DC , emend. T. Y. Tu and P. W. Xie

Subshrubs, Shrubs or trees, unarmed; stems terete, rarely quadrangular; branches sometimes flattened. Raphides absent. Leaves opposite, lax or rarely congested or apparently fascicled at stem apices ( W. acaulis ), with margins rarely denticulate, infrequently with venation not visible abaxially; stipules persistent or caducous as a whole or by fragmentation, interpetiolar, triangular to pandurate or leaflike, entire or rarely bilobed, erect and flat to longitudinally folded and/or spreading to reflexed. Inflorescences terminal, cymose, thyrsoid, or paniculiform, many flowered, or rarely congested‐ cymose and several flowered, sessile to pedunculate, bracteate. Flowers sessile or pedicellate, bisexual, monomorphic, often fragrant. Calyx limb 5‐ lobed. Corolla white, greenish, yellowish, pink, purple or red, tubular, salverform, or funnelform, glabrous or pubescent inside; lobes (4 or)5, imbricate in bud. Stamens (4 or)5, inserted in corolla tube near throat, partially to fully exserted; filaments short to developed; anthers dorsifixed, sometimes with connective prolonged in short apical and/or basal appendages. Ovary 2(or 3)‐celled, ovules numerous in each cell on peltate axile placentas; stigma bifid, exserted. Fruit capsular or rarely baccate, fleshy, subglobose, loculicidally dehiscent (indehiscent in Wendlandia acualis ) across apical portion into 2 valves with valves later sometimes splitting septicidally, papery to woody, with calyx limb persistent or rarely tardily deciduous; seeds numerous, small, compressed, sometimes narrowly winged; testa membranous, reticulate‐ striate; endosperm fleshy.

As a result of observation in this study and the results of Xie et al., 8 we amended the genus description of Wendlandia to accommodate ca. 90 species mainly in tropical and subtropical Asia and rarely in the Pacific region.