Rothmannia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It was described in 1776 and is named for Göran Rothman (1739–1778) by Thunberg – both were pupils of Linnaeus.

Description

Although Rubiaceae flowers are generally organized in many-flowered inflorescences, solitary flowers are also found in this genus. The reduction of the number of flowers per inflorescence is often invertedly proportionate to the size of the flowers, which explains the large solitary flowers of some Rothmannia.

Distribution and species

The genus originally had wide distribution, but is now restricted to species found in tropical and southern Africa:

Asian species moved to other genera

The species found in western Indian Ocean, southern China to Indo-China and New Guinea are now placed in other genera, especially ''Ridsdalea: Rothmannia macrophylla (Hook.f.) Bremek. is a synonym of Singaporandia macrophylla (Hook.f.) K.M.Wong