Scytopetalaceae

Abstract

Evergreen trees or shrubs; young stems with cortical bundles; indumentum, if present, of uniseriate hairs. Leaves alternate, simple, entire or serrate, papery to coriaceous, minutely stipulate. Inflorescences axillary, often ramiflorous or cauliflorous, panicles, thyrsoids, botryoids or racemes, rarely reduced to single flowers (Asteranthos). Flowers regular, hypogynous or rarely perigynous; sepals united; calyx cupular, thick, leathery, persistent on ripe fruit, occasionally accrescent; petals lacking; staminodes 6–28, completely fused, forming a showy corolla-like structure; pseudocorolla glabrous or rarely pubescent, usually very thick and leathery (but thin in Asteranthos); stamens numerous; filament bases united, adnate to pseudocorolla; anthers basifixed, tetrasporangiate; anther dehiscence lengthwise, complete or apical and pore-like; ovary syncarpous, 3–8-locular; placentation axile; style solitary; stigma undifferentiated or lobed; ovules bitegmic, anatropous, pendulous, 2, 4, or many in each locule. Fruits 1(2)-or many-seeded, drupes, loculicidally dehiscent capsules, or leathery and berry-like. Seeds large, ca. 1 cm long; testa poorly differentiated; endosperm horny, often markedly ruminate; embryo well differentiated; cotyledons large, flat, cordate, rarely reduced (Asteranthos).