Myodocarpaceae

Abstract

Shrubs to small trees, glabrous and unarmed; schizogenous secretory canals throughout the plant; plants terrestrial, evergreen; stems monocaulous or sparsely to well branched, pachycaulous; mating system andromonoecious (rarely hermaphroditic). Leaves alternate, frequently heteroblastic; petioles sheathing at the base, exstipulate, sometimes alate; blade simple or pinnately compound, with entire or toothed margins; venation pinnate. Inflorescences terminal, paniculate, the ultimate units umbellate; inflorescence axes subtended by small to foliose bracts; flowers subtended by an involucel of bracteoles; pedicels articulate. Flowers either perfect or staminate, epigynous, actinomorphic; perianth 5-merous; calyx forming a short low tube with evident lobes, valvate or imbricate; petals imbricate (rarely valvate), sometimes calyptrate, the bases clawed or broadly inserted; stamens 5, in a single whorl, alternipetalous, anthers dorsifixed, introrse, tetrasporangiate, each pollen sac dehiscing by a longitudinal slit; filaments filiform to stout, inflexed in bud; ovary syncarpous, of 2 carpels (vestigial in staminate flowers), each carpel unilocular with apical placentation; stigmas on a distinct style; styles free, geniculate or not, sometimes swollen at the base and confluent with the nectariferous disc (reduced in staminate flowers); ovules anatropous, pendulous, one per locule, unitegmic. Fruits simple, either drupaceous with a fleshy mesocarp and a separate, variously sclerified endocarp (pyrene) around each locule, or dry schizocarpic with two mericarps borne on a carpophore; numerous secretory vesicles present in the exocarp and canals in the mesocarp and sometimes the endocarp. Seeds straight; endosperm copious, oily, uniform; embryo minute but well differentiated.