ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comprehensive review of Rauvolfia which is a genus of plant in the family Apocynaceae found in tropical and southern Africa. It presents information on character, habitat, phenotypic charater and distribution of R. caffra. Shrubs or trees, rarely rhizomatous undershrubs, with white latex in all parts, often candelabrum-shaped; branches in whorls of 3–5; branchlets glabrous to lanate. Leaves in whorls of 3–6, sometimes opposite on lower nodes, often confined to apices of branchlets, with numerous colleters in leaf axils; blade glabrous. Fruit of two apocarpous or partly to completely syncarpous drupes each with a single stone. Seeds laterally compressed, obliquely ovoid or ellipsoid, with a large embryo; embryo surrounded by a thin endosperm.
