Notes:
This genus is characterized by its woody habit; leaves that often have domatia; interpetiolar, triangular, generally awned and persistent stipules; axillary, several-flowered, fasiculate to shortly cymose and subsessile inflorescences with the bracts free; five-merous, bisexual flowers; lobed calyx limb; somewhat small, white, salverform corollas that are often densely bearded in the throat and have the lobes contorted to the left in bud; exserted anthers with a well developed, generally flattened apical appendage; two exserted stigmas; and fleshy, subglobose, drupaceous fruits that become dark wine red then black when mature. Empogona has ca. 30 species in Africa, with one of these ranging into the Comores and Madagascar where it is not uncommon. The species of Empogona were previously included in Tricalysia, but morphological and molecular data support the separation of these two genera (Tosh et al., 2009).
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