Microtea

Annuals, perennial herbs, rarely dwarf subshrubs; stems angulate, glabrous or papillate; leaves alternate, sessile or pedunculate, entire, filiform to ovate or obovate, cuneate or truncate, apically mostly acuminate, a persistent leaf rosette usually present, cauline leaves resembling the rosulate leaves or much shorter; inflorescence a spike or thyrsoid; pedicel inconspicuous or up to 3 mm long; flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, subtended by a hyaline bract and two similar bracteoles, sometimes bracteoles absent; perianth of (4)5 glabrous segments or lobes, green, white or yellowish; stamens (4)5 in alternisepalous position, or 6–8 (in both antesepalous and alternisepalous positions), anthers 0.15–0.30 mm, introrse, thecae globose, pollen grains pantoporate; ovary roundish; style not present or very short, stigmas 2–5; fruit nut-like, single-seeded, dry; pericarp projections (if present) not evident in flowering condition, pericarp at fruiting stage reticulate, mostly having finger-shaped outgrowths (emergences) that can be plumose (with additional smaller hair-like projections) or hooked at their apices; seeds spherical, black, with rugose or alveolate surface, with annular embryo located vertically and abundant perisperm. Ten species distributed in the (sub)tropics of the Americas; two – M.debilis and M.maypurensis – are considered as aliens in the humid tropics of Africa (Cameroon) and Asia (Indonesia), respectively.

Annuals, perennial herbs or dwarf subshrubs; bracteoles present or absent; pedicels inconspicuous or very short (up to 1.3 mm long); flowers single per node (inflorescence a spike); stigmas 2(3), thick. The species are distributed across the (sub)tropical South America, in Central America and Antilles.

Microtea, the jumby peppers, are a genus of flowering plants in the family Microteaceae, native to the Caribbean islands, Central America, and South America.