裸花树属 luo hua shu shu

Authors: Hua Zhu & Hans-Joachim (Hajo) Esser

Duvigneaudia J. Léonard.

Shrubs to trees, monoecious but male flowers sometimes lacking; indumentum mostly absent [or sometimes of simple multicellular hairs], latex present, white. Leaves alternate; stipules small; petiole without glands; leaf blade margins entire [to rarely serrate], with marginal glands abaxially, pinnately veined. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, elongate racemelike thyrses, unbranched [rarely branched]; bracts 2-glandular [or eglandular]. Male flowers 1-3 per bract-axil, small; pedicel short but distinct; sepals 3, small, fused only at base; petals absent; disk absent; stamens 3-12; filaments free; anthers longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode absent. Female flowers: pedicel distinct and often elongating considerably in fruit; sepals 3, free to slightly united at base; petals absent; disk absent; ovary 3-locular, smooth or muricate with 3 pairs of spines; ovules 1 per cell; styles 3, undivided. Capsules subglobose, smooth or muricate, of 3 2-valved cocci. Seeds ellipsoid, dry, usually ecarunculate; endosperm fleshy.

About 25 species: mainly neotropical, but with two species each in Africa and Asia; one species in China.

Lower Taxon

• Gymnanthes remota (Steenis) Esser