Cannabaceae

Abstract

Perennial or annual herbs without latex; stems erect or twining, either scabrous or armed with rigid climbing hairs, and often with glandular trichomes. Leaves palmately compound or lobed, sometimes simple, petiolate, serrate, generally decussate, near the stem apex often alternate; stipules triangular, sometimes fused laterally, persistent. Plants dioecious, rarely monoecious, vegetatively dimorphic or not. Male inflorescences bracteate thyrses; staminate flowers pedicellate, regular, with 5 free tepals; stamens 5, antitepalous, erect in bud; anthers tetrasporangiate, with longitudinal dehiscence; female inflorescences basically cymose, spicate; perianth uniseriate, at maturity tightly appressed to the ovary; ovary bicarpellate, superior, unilocular, with 1 bitegmic, anatropous, crassinucellar ovule pendent from near the apex of the locule; style branches 2, filiform. Fruit an achene covered by the perianth. Seed 1; endosperm sparse, fleshy; embryo curved or spirally coiled.