Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules and sympetalous actinomorphic flowers. The family contains about 13,500 species in about 620 genera, which makes it the fourth-largest angiosperm family. Rubiaceae has a cosmopolitan distribution; however, the largest species diversity is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics. Economically important genera include Coffea, the source of coffee, Cinchona, the source of the antimalarial alkaloid quinine, ornamental cultivars, and historically some dye plants.
Bullockia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It was originally described as a subgenus of Canthium. The genus is distributed in eastern and southern Africa from Ethiopia to Transvaal, as well as Madagascar in bushland, woodland, savannas, and dry, deciduous forests.
Canthium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are shrubs and small trees. The leaves are deciduous and the stems are usually thorny.
Kraussia socotrana is a species of plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is endemic to Socotra, Yemen. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and rocky areas. The type was collected from Wadi Irih on the Nogad Plain.
Kraussia speciosa is a species of plant in the family Rubiaceae. It is found in coastal Kenya and Tanzania, where it is associated with the Zanzibar-Inhambane regional mosaic.
Multidentia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae.
Psydrax is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It consists of trees, shrubs, and a few lianas in the paleotropics.
Tricalysia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus is found in tropical and southern Africa and on the islands in the Western Indian Ocean.
Randia, commonly known as indigoberry, is a mostly Neotropical genus of shrubs or small trees in the Rubiaceae. As of February 2022 Plants of the World Online lists a total of 112 accepted species in the genus. Several Australian species have been reassigned to the genus Atractocarpus. These include the garden plants Atractocarpus chartaceus and A. fitzalanii.
Vanguerieae is a tribe of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae and contains about 655 species in 30 genera. It is one of the most species-rich groups within the family and it is distributed across the Paleotropics.
Afrocanthium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It consists of deciduous, unarmed trees, and shrubs. They are native to East Africa, from Sudan and Ethiopia to South Africa.
Meyna is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae.
Ancylanthos was a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae but is no longer recognized. It was originally described by René Louiche Desfontaines in 1818. In 2005, it was sunk into synonymy with Vangueria, based on a phylogenetic study of DNA sequences.
Vangueriella is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus is found in tropical Africa.
Virectaria is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus, known as Virecta until 1952, consists exclusively of tropical African species. It is a Guineo-Congolian genus, having its highest diversity in Lower Guinea but it also occurs in the Zambezian Region. Verdcourt provided a revision in which he defined five species but three more were added later. In 2001, a detailed morphological and anatomical study of the genus was conducted and a taxonomic survey and a key to the species was provided.
Empogona is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. The genus is found in tropical and southern Africa and Madagascar. It was for a time deemed a subgenus or section of Tricalysia.
Kraussia floribunda is a species of plant in the family Rubiaceae. It ranges from Mozambique and Eswatini to eastern South Africa, and is associated with the Tongoland-Pondoland regional mosaic. The type was described from a plant collected by Dr. F. Krauss near Durban.
Herbert Fuller Wernham was a British botanist, who from 1909 to 1929 worked at the British Museum, as an assistant in the botany department. From 1911 to 1921 he published extensively on tropical plants and many genera, retiring in 1921 due to ill health (alcoholism).
Diane Mary Bridson is a British botanist.
