柴龙树属 chai long shu shu

Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, usually black when dry, veins pinnate, margin entire. Flowers bisexual, small, in terminal or axillary panicles or cymose panicles. Calyx cupular, small, 5-toothed. Petals 5, free or slightly united at base, valvate, usually glabrous. Stamens 5, alternate petals and inserted at petal base; filaments dilated above; anthers sagittate, 2-lobed, dorsifixed. Ovary obliquely gibbous; style eccentric, slightly curved; stigma small, oblique. Drupe ovoid or ellipsoid, oblique; exocarp fragile, crustaceous.

One variable species (see H. Sleumer, Blumea 17: 189. 1969): tropical and subtropical Africa and tropical Asia, also extending into S China.

Lower Taxon

• Apodytes dimidiata E. Meyer ex Arnott