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

Classification Notes: The genus Xymalos was included in the family Trimeniaceae by Gibbs (1917), Hutchinson (1973) and Dyer (1975). Baker & Wright (1909), Wright (1912) and Phillips (1951), Melchior (1964), Verdcourt (1968), Airy Shaw (1973), and Phillipson (1993) placed the genus in the family Monimiaceae (Jussieu 1809), and they are followed in this work. Takhtajan (1997) and Phillipson (1987, 1993) place Xymalos in subfamily Mollinedioideae (Perkins) Thorne (1974) tribe Hedycaryeae Pax (1891) of Monimiaceae.

Nomenclature:

• Monimiaceae
  • Jussieu: 133 (1809)
  • Pax: 94 (1891)
  • Airy Shaw: 756 (1973)
  • Thorne: 147 (1974)
  • Takhtajan: 225 (1980)
  • Phillipson: 25 (1987)
  • Phillipson: 426 (1993)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Genera ± 34, species ± 440; mainly in the warmer parts of the southern hemisphere in Africa, New Guinea and Australia, also South and Central America
• Southern Africa: Genus 1, species 1

References:

• AIRY SHAW, H.K. 1973. Monimiaceae. In J.C. Willis, A dictionary of the flowering plants and ferns, edn 8. University Press, Cambridge
• BAKER, J.G. & WRIGHT, C.H. 1909. Monimiaceae. Flora of tropical Africa 6,1
• DYER, R.A. 1975. The genera of southern African flowering plants, Vol. 1. Botanical Research Institute, Pretoria
• GIBBS, L.S. 1917. Trimeniaceae. A contribution to the phytogeography and flora of the Arfak mountains. Taylor & Francis, London
• HUTCHINSON, J. 1973. Trimeniaceae. The families of flowering plants, edn 3. Clarendon Press, Oxford
• JUSSIEU, A.L. DE. 1809. Monimiaceae. Annales et mémoires du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 14
• MELCHIOR, H. 1964. Monimiaceae. In H. Melchior, A. Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien, edn 12, 2. Borntraeger, Berlin
• PAX, F. 1891. Monimiaceae. Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3,2
• PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
• PHILLIPSON, W.R. 1987. A classification of the Monimiaceae. Nordic Journal Botany 7
• 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.
  
• TAKHTAJAN, A. 1997. Diversity and classification of flowering plants. Columbia University Press, New York
• THORNE, R.F. 1974. A phylogenetic classification of the Annoniflorae. Aliso 8
• VERDCOURT, B. 1968. Flora of tropical East Africa. Monimiaceae
• WRIGHT, C.H. 1912. Monimiaceae. Flora capensis 5,1

Resources:

• Monimiaceae genus: Xymalos