Commemorating Joseph Dombey (1742–95), a French botanist.
Small evergreen trees and shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, palmately veined, often cordate and lobed; stipules sometimes prominent. Bracts 3, mostly free, occasionally large, soon shed. Flowers in axillary or terminal white or pink clusters. Sepals 5, bent back when mature. Petals 5, asymmetric, persistent and becoming papery. Stamens united at the base into 2-5 bundles and alternating with 5 sterile stamens. Ovary with 2-5 chambers; styles 5. Fruit a dehiscent capsule.
Seed or cuttings.
Some species are used as a source of fibre.
Anthered stamens more than 10; petals and stamens clearly present on bisexual flowers.
About 210 species from Africa (mostly tropical) to the Mascarenes.
Verdoorn & Herman (1986); Seyani (1988, 1991).
Source: (1997). Sterculiaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
