e-Key v3 - Xymalos
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Monimiaceae - Xymalos Baill.

Description :

  • Evergreen trees or shrubs, glabrous, often aromatic, dioecious
  • Leaves opposite or subopposite, simple, coriaceous, entire or irregularly, minutely glandular-toothed, gland-dotted; stipules 0
  • Inflorescence solitary or paired, velvety pubescent racemes or cymes in axils of upper leaves; bracts small or 0
  • Flowers unisexual, ± regular, small
  • Perianth of 3-6 inconspicuous tepals, imbricate
  • Male flowers with small flat receptacle; tepals 4-6, ovate or lanceolate; stamens 10-15; filaments short, without appendages; anthers subsessile, dehiscing by 2 slits; rudimentary ovary 0
  • Female flowers with 3-5 tepals; staminodes 0 or hair-like; ovary superior, unicarpellate, obovoid, glabrous, a ring of hairs around its base, 1-locular; ovule solitary, pendulous, anatropous; stigma thick, sessile, discoid or cushion-shaped
  • Fruit a 1-seeded drupe, ovoid, smooth, often enclosed by perianth or in a fleshy receptacle, with persistent stigma
  • Seed compressed, ellipsoid; endosperm copious, oily; embryo straight

Nomenclature:

  • Xymalos Baill.
    • Baillon: 650 (1887)
    • Baker & Wright: 169 (1909)
    • Wright: 492 (1912)
    • Verdcourt: 1 (1968)
    • Phillipson: 434 (1993)
    • Stannard: 42 (1997)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Monotypic: Xymalos monospora (Harv.) Baill., East Africa from Sudan to southern Africa
  • Southern Africa : Northern Province, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape forests

References:

  • BAILLON, H.E. 1887. Monimiacées. Bulletin mensuel de la Société Linnéenne de Paris 1
  • BAKER, J.G. & WRIGHT, C.H. 1909. Monimiaceae . Flora of tropical Africa 6,1
  • PHILLIPSON, W.R. 1993. Monimiaceae . In K. Kubitzki, J.G. Rohwer & V. Bittrich, The families and genera of vascular plants - dicotyledons 2. Springer-Verlag, Berlin
  • STANNARD, B.L. 1997. Monimiaceae . Flora zambesiaca 9,2
  • VERDCOURT, B. 1968. Flora of tropical East Africa . Monimiaceae
  • WRIGHT, C.H. 1912. Monimiaceae . Flora capensis 5,1