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(Last Modified On 3/15/2013)
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(Last Modified On 3/15/2013)
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Genus
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Clethra L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. P1. 396, 1753.
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Description
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Shrubs or small trees with stellate pubescence or rarely glabrous.
Leaves simple, alternate, the margin entire or toothed. Inflorescences
racemose or panicu- late, terminal, bracts deciduous. Flowers I,
actinomorphic, white or pinkish, fragrant, usually nodding; sepals 5,
united at extreme base, imbricate, persistant around fruit; petals 5,
distinct, imbricate, deciduous, larger than sepals, emarginate at apex;
stamens 10 rarely 12, distinct, in two whorls, the filaments slender,
subulate or flattened, the anthers sagittate, extrorsely inflexed in
bud, becoming inverted and introrse at anthesis, opening by apical
pores; pollen grains not in tetrads, 3-colporate; disc obsolete; ovary
superior, globose to transversely-elliptic, pubescent, 3-lobed,
3-locular, the ovules numerous, borne on axile placental intru- sions,
anatropus, the style 1, erect, persistant on fruit, the stigma 3-lobed.
Fruit capsular, subglobose, pubescent, 3-lobed, loculicidally 3-valvate,
the valves 2-cleft; seeds numerous, compressed or trigonous, sometimes
winged, the seed coat thin, the endosperm fleshy, the embryo
cylindrical, short.
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Distribution
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A genus of 20-25 species in tropical and sub-tropical Asia and America and in the Madeira Islands. The greatest area of diversification is in tropical America. Britton (N. Amer. Fl. 29: 5, 1914) recognized 21 species in North America with 12 found in Mexico and Central America and one in Panama.
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