Rubia

• WordNet 3.6
  • n Rubia type genus of the Rubiaceae; Old World herbs and subshrubs grown for their medicinal properties and for dye substances extracted from their roots
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• • n Rubia A genus of gamopetalous plants, including the madder, type of the order Rubiaceæ, belonging to the tribe Galieæ, distinguished from the closely related and well-known genus Galium, the bedstraw, by flowers with parts in fives instead of fours. It is further characterized by the absence of an involucre from the flowers, by a roundish calyxtube without border, a wheel-shaped corolla, five stamens, a minute disk, and an ovary commonly two-celled and twoovuled, forming a small fleshy twin fruit. There are about 38 species, natives of the Mediterranean region, tropical and temperate Asia, South Africa, and tropical and temperate South America. They are herbs with elongated angled stems, which are commonly rigid or minutely prickly, and with large thickened roots sometimes 3 feet long. They bear whorled lanceolate or obovate leaves, usually four at a node, and small flowers in axillary or terminal cymes, with their pedicels each jointed under the calyx. See madder and munjeet.
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• • n Rubia rōō′bi-a a genus of gamopetalous plants, including the madder
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