Herbs, undershrubs, or rarely shrubs, usually twining; monoecious
Leaves
alternate, petiolate, entire or toothed, 3-5-nerved from base
Inflorescence
leaf-opposed or sometimes axillary racemes; male flowers ± glomerulate above; female flowers solitary towards base, rarely 0
Petals
0
Disc
0
Male flowers
: calyx with 4 or 5 valvate lobes; stamens 8-20; filaments free, sometimes inserted on a fleshy receptacle; pistil rudimentary or 0
Female flowers
: calyx with 4 or 5 imbricate lobes; ovary usually 4-locular, with a single ovule in each locule; styles connate into a hollow, cylindric or subglobose column crowned with free, stigmatic lobes
Fruit
a capsule, strongly 4-lobed, breaking into bivalved, dorsally winged cocci
Seeds
globose or compressed; testa crustaceous, sometimes winged; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat
Nomenclature:
Plukenetia
L.
Linnaeus: 1192 (1753)
Prain: 496 (1920)
Webster: 93 (1994)
Pterococcus
Hassk.
Hasskarl: 41 (1842) not of Pallas, name conserved
Meyer: 41 (1967)
Radcliffe-Smith: 210 (1996)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 15, mostly neotropical, 3 in Africa
Southern Africa
: Species 1:
Plukenetia africana
Sond., variable, usually known as
Pterococcus
; Namibia, Botswana and Northern Province
LINNAEUS, C. 1753.
Species plantarum
, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
MEYER, P.G. 1967.
Euphorbiaceae
.
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
67
PRAIN, D. 1920.
Euphorbiaceae
[in part].
Flora capensis
5, 2
RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1996.
Euphorbiaceae
.
Flora zambesiaca
9, 4
WEBSTER, G.L. 1994. Synopsis of the genera and suprageneric taxa of
Euphorbiaceae
.
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
81
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