Euphorbiaceae - Phyllanthoideae - Antidesmeae - Antidesma L.
Description:
Trees or shrubs; dioecious
Leaves alternate, large, entire; stipulate
Inflorescence a raceme or spike, often catkin-like, more rarely subpaniculate, sometimes male flowers in a spike and female in a panicle; bracts small, usually ciliate
Petals 0
Male flowers: calyx membranous, small, 3-5(-8)-lobed or -partite, imbricate; disc subentire or consisting of distinct glands; stamens (2)3-5(-10); ovary rudimentary
Female flowers: calyx as in male; disc annular, surrounding base of ovary; ovary 1(2)-locular, with 2 ovules in each locule; styles (2)3(-5), usually bilobed
Fruit a small, often oblique and compressed-ellipsoid, red or black drupe; endocarp hardened
Seeds usually solitary by abortion, ecarunculate; albumen fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat
x = 13 (high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)
Nomenclature:
Antidesma L.
Linnaeus: 1027 (1753)
Hutchinson: 405 (1920)
Airy Shaw: 1076 (1966) Stilaginaceae
Radcliffe-Smith: 572 (1988)
Webster: 52 (1994)
Radcliffe-Smith: 105 (1996)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 200, mostly in warmer parts of Old World; only 7 in Africa
Southern Africa: Species 2, mainly Antidesma venosum Tul.; Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, Mpumalanga, to KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape
References:
AIRY SHAW, H.K. 1966. Willis' Dictionary of the flowering plants and ferns, edn 7. Addenda. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
HUTCHINSON, J. 1920. Euphorbiaceae [in part]. Flora capensis 5, 2
LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum, edn 1. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
RADCLIFFE-SMITH, A. 1988. Hymenocardiaceae. Flora of tropical East Africa. Euphorbiaceae Part 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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