7. Margaritaria Linnaeus f., Suppl. Pl. 66. 1782.
蓝子木属 lan zi mu shu
Authors: Bingtao Li & Michael G. Gilbert
Calococcus Kurz ex Teijsmann & Binnendijk; Prosorus Dalzell.
Trees or shrubs, dioecious; indumentum of simple hairs, often absent. Leaves alternate, usually distichous; stipules entire or denticulate, usually caducous; petiole short; leaf blade simple, margin entire, venation pinnate. Inflorescences axillary, solitary or several in clusters or on condensed short shoot. Male flowers: pedicels slender; sepals 4, biseriate, unequal, often outer ones narrower, membranous or papery, entire or denticulate, with midrib and branching veinlets; petals absent; disk annular, entire or shallowly lobed, adnate at base of sepals; stamens 4; filaments free or connate at base; anthers extrorse, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode absent. Female flowers: pedicels terete or flattened; sepals and disk as in male; ovary 2-6-locular; ovules 2 per locule, transverse; styles 2-6, free or connate at base, apex bifid. Fruit a capsule, globose or subglobose, dehiscent into 3 2-valved cocci or ± irregularly dehiscent when mature; exocarp green, reticulate, and fleshy, usually separating from pale, papery, smooth or rugose endocarp; locules 2-seeded. Seeds angled; outer testa fleshy, dark blue to purplish, glossy, inner layer bony, smooth or intravaginated at chalazal end; endosperm abundant, white; embryo erect or slightly recurved; cotyledon thinner and flattened, longer than radical.
About 14 species: Africa, America, SE Asia, Oceania; one species in China.
