The description given above applies only to subgenus Euclea. Subgenus Rymia, which is confined to South Africa, Namibia and south–west Angola, differs in its very shallowly lobed corolla with 5–8 lobes. The flowers of subgenus Euclea are predominantly tetramerous. Some individuals of E. undulata are consistently pentamerous, however. Otherwise pentamerous flowers are of sporadic occurrence. The traditional differences between Euclea and Diospyros at first sight appear to be small, especially in view of the considerable variation within the latter. As explained after the family description, however, the structure of the fruit and seed is fundamentally different. Euclea, in appearance, is also very distinct, though the differences are difficult to express concisely in words. No serious student of the family has ever confused them, except for a rare slip of the pen and the biased judgement of a single anatomist (Parmentier, Ann. Univ, Lyon, 6 (2): 81, 1892). In parts of Kenya, Euclea divinorum and E. racemosa subsp. schimperi are important weeds, especially in tsetse–barrier clearings (Ivens, East African weeds and their control, p. 56, 1967). When natural forest or thicket is cleared they often become dominant because of their apparently inexhaustible capacity for coppice and root sucker production. They also appear to invade existing pasture. Fruits are normally produced in abundance, but, although they are eaten by birds and mammals, including squirrels and man, they do not seem to be much sought–after, and frequently remain on the plant or on the ground beneath it for a year or more after ripening.