Flora Zambesiaca

Taxon Detail

FZ volume:4 part:0 (1978) Alangiaceae by J. F. M. Cannon

Alangiaceae

Range:

A monogeneric family of c. 22 species from the tropics and subtropics of the Old World.

Description:

Trees or shrubs, sometimes spiny (but not in F.Z. area). Leaves alternate, entire to very slightly undulate or lobed; distinctly petiolate, often somewhat asymmetric at the base, stipules 0. Flowers hermaphrodite regular, in few-flowered (in F.Z. area) axillary cymes with articulated pedicels. Calyx truncate or with 4–10 teeth. Petals 4–10, valvate, linear, becoming strongly recurved at maturity, sometimes slightly coherent at the base. Stamens the same number as and alternating with the petals, or up to 2–4 times as many; free or connate at the base, more or less villous adaxially; anthers 2-locular, linear. Disk subglobose, flattened above. Ovary inferior, 1–2-locular, style simple, clavate or 1–3-lobed; ovules solitary, pendulous in the loculi, with 2 integuments. Fruit drupaceous, crowned with the remains of the disk and sepals, l(2)-seeded. Seeds with the embryo about equalling the endosperm.

Notes:

It was formally included in the Cornaceae but is distinguished by its articulate pedicels, valvate aestivation and normally uniovulate 1-locular ovary.