Centema Hook. f.

Erect perennial herbs or low shrubs. Leaves entire, opposite on mostly branched stems. Flowers in pedunculate (rarely some sessile) spike-like bracteate thyrses, each bract subtending a bibracteolate partial inflorescence. Partial inflorescences normally consisting of two (occasionally one in the upper part of the thyrse) fertile flowers; one of these is subtended dorsally by a single sterile flower (which is thus contained in a partial inflorescence bracteole), the other by a sterile flower on each side, each of which is contained in a bracteole of its own. Perianth segments 5, obviously narrower from the outer to the inner. Ovary uniovulate, somewhat compressed, delicate. Seed with abundant endosperm.

Worldwide: 2 species in Angola, Mozambique, Eswatini and northeastern South Africa.

Angola: 2 taxa.