Sesamum

• Authority

  Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

• Family

  Pedaliaceae

• Scientific Name

  Sesamum

• Description

  Description - Herbs, usually erect, the lower leaves opposite, the upper alternate, or all sometimes alternate, the violet to white, short-peduncled flowers solitary in the axils. Calyx 5-parted. Tube of the corolla oblique at the base, somewhat gibbous, the limb 5-lobed, slightly 2-lipped, the lobes spreading. Stamens 4, didynamous, borne near the base of the corolla; anthers sagittate. Ovary 2- celled; ovules many in each cavity, superimposed in a single series. Fruit an oblong, 4-sided loculicidal capsule. [Arabic name.] About 12 species, natives of tropical Africa and Asia, the following typical.