Garryaceae

Abstract

Dioecious evergreen trees and shrubs with decussate branching. Leaves simple, petiolate, opposite-decussate, exstipulate; blades coriaceous, with entire, variably undulate margins; upper surfaces sparingly pubescent to glabrous, often lustrous; lower surfaces glabrate to densely hairy; epidermal papillae common and well-developed. Inflorescences terminal, catkin-like, solitary, fasciculate or branched at the base; flowers solitary or ternate, borne in the axils of decussate bracts connate only at the base or fused into cup-like structures. Staminate flowers pedicellate, actinomorphic; a vestigial nectary disk sometimes present; sepals absent, petals 4, distinct, apices united by intertwined hairs forming a semi-enclosed chamber with four openings; stamens 4, distinct, alternating with petals; anthers basifixed, tetrasporangiate, dehiscing with longitudinal slits; filaments short; pistillate flowers short-pedicellate; perianth segments absent or bract-like, 2, rarely 4, adnate to the ovary, the free tips opposite or alternate with the stylodia; ovary inferior, syncarpous, bicarpellate or rarely tricarpellate, unilocular; placentation apical, ovules 2, rarely 3, pendant, anatropous, unitegmic and crassinucellar; stylodia 2, rarely 3, distinct, persistent and spreading, stigmatic through much of their length. Fruit a berry, dry and thin-walled at maturity, long persistent, indehiscent. Seeds 2, rarely 3, subglobose to ovoid-elliptical, with a translucent arilloid sarcotesta and copious oily endosperm; embryo minute, straight.