M.G. Gilbert (2006) Gomphocarpus. Flora of Somalia 4:144-148
Plants short-lived, shrubby perennial herbs from non-tuerous tap roots; latex white. Leaves paired or in whorls of 4, sessile or shortly petiolate, linear to linear-lanceolate, margins revolute. Inflorescences extra-axillary, pedunculate, nodding umbels. Corollas rotate or reflexed; corolline coronas absent; gynostegial coronas of 5 staminal lobes attached about 1 mm above the base of the staminal column. laterally compressed, complicate quadrate, the upper margins variously toothed, cavity of the lobes with or without a tooth; stigmatic heads flat; pollinaria with a pair of pendent, flattened pollinia. Fruiting pedicels usually contorted; follicles single, variously inflated, lanceolate to subglobose, beaked or not, with or without filiform processes; seeds ovate, with one convex and one concave face, verrucose, with a tuft of hairs about 3 cm long at one end.
Gomphocarpus is a genus of 20 specie. They are native to topical subtropical Africa and Arabia. A few species have become naturalise elsewhere in warm temperate to subtropical regions, probably after introduction as ornamentals. There are three species in Somaliland and Somalia.
Note: GBIF records include introduced and cultivated plants. Consequently, the distribution shown often differs from statements about a taxon's native distribution.