Penthoraceae

Abstract

Erect perennial rhizomatous herbs; nodes unilacunar, 1-trace; roots fibrous. Leaves alternate, serrulate, simple, shortly petiolate, estipulate; lamina elliptic to lanceolate, venation pinnate with prominent midvein, attenuate at base. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, secund, scorpioid (or corymblike) cymes; floral bracts lateral and perpendicular to the pedicels; flowers perfect, small, regular; 5(-8)-merous; tetra-or pentacyclic, slightly perigynous; perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or only sepaline; calyx valvate, of 5(-8) unequal sepals, united below, regular, erect during anthesis, becoming reflexed in fruit, persistent; corolla absent or, when present, inconspicuous with 1–8 greenish or whitish, lanceolate, slightly clawed petals inserted on rim of hypanthium, usually shorter than calyx lobes; stamens free, 10(-16), inserted in 2 whorls on edge of hypanthium; filaments teretefiliform, tapering only slightly towards anthers; anthers oblong, 2-loculate, basifixed, latrorse, longitudinally dehiscent, and caducous; gynoecium 5(-8)-carpellate; ovary 5(-8)-locular, syncarpous in lower half and sunken in hypanthium below placental area, thus partly inferior at anthesis but wholly superior at maturity; stylodia short, sub-marginal, erect during anthesis; stigmas capitate; each carpel with a single, marginal, pendulous placenta in its distal, free part with 30–100 ovules; ovules anatropous, bitegmic, crassinucellate; fruiting carpels becoming obliquely oriented in fruit, dehiscing circumscissile above the syncarpous region of the gynoecium. Fruit many-seeded; seeds ellipsoid to obovoid, surfacepapillate (tuberculate to echinate); embryo large, straight, endosperm of the ab initio cellular type, scanty.

Keywords

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.