Spermacoce is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It consists of about 275 species found in the tropics and subtropics mainly in the southern hemisphere, particularly Australia, but also the Americas, Africa and Asia.
The species are herbs or small shrubs with small- to medium-sized, four-lobed flowers arranged in capitate inflorescences. Some have a brightly coloured calyx and are eye-catching, particularly the Australian species. The corolla is variable in colour, often white, but also all shades of blue, pink and maroon. The fruit is usually a two-seeded capsule, sometimes a schizocarp or nut.
This work is conducted at the National Botanic Garden of Belgium by Steven Dessein as part of our tropical botany research program. The garden has a large herbarium devoted to tropical botany, with particular emphasis on Central Africa.
This website aims to help with the identification of Spermacoce species and define the current thinking on their taxonomy. We will provide illustrations, keys, maps, specimen data and images and hope to stimulate interest in this genus. Please feel free to contact us with questions on Spermacoce. We would particularly welcome contributions of pictures and data that could be used on the website.
- 262 reads
