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(Last Modified On 5/24/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/24/2013)
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Family
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BRUNELLIACEAE
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Contributor
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DUNCAN M. PORTER AND JOSE CUATRECASAS
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Description
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Evergreen trees; trunks tall, unarmed, the terminal branching dichasial. Leaves opposite or ternate, simple or pinnate, coriaceous or subcoriaceous, mostly pubescent, the margins mostly dentate; stipels present on the rachis in compound leaves; stipules lateral, 1 or 2 pairs on each side of the leaves or verti- cillate, free. Inflorescences determinate or definite and dichasial, axillary on young and terminal branchlets, usually large cymose panicles, commonly pubes- cent, rarely glabrous. Flowers small, basically actinomorphic or 4-, 5-, 6(-8)- merous, bisexual or mostly unisexual by abortion and the plants dioecious; sepals connate basally, ovate or ovate-triangular, valvate, persistent; petals absent; stamens usually twice as many as the sepals, in 2 or rarely more whorls, inner whorl opposite the sepals, reduced to short sterile staminodes in carpellate flowers, the filaments free, hirtellous, inserted below and outside the disc mar- gin, the anthers ellipsoid, bilobed, each lobe 2-thecate, oscillating or pendulous, introrse, longitudinally dehiscent; intrastaminal disc thick, flat or concave, pu- bescent, 10-12(-24)-notched, with as many indentations as stamens or stami- nodes; gynoecium apocarpous, the carpels free, immersed basally in the disc, the same number or fewer than the sepals and alternate with them, rudimentary in staminate flowers, the ovaries ovoid or ellipsoid, apiculate, commonly densely pubescent and mostly hispid, 1-loculed, the ovules collateral, anatropous, epi- tropous, 2 per locule, the stylodia subulate, erect in flower, more or less rigid, hooked or curved apically, the stigmas linear, sutural. Fruit a stellate poly- follicle; follicles the same number as sepals or fewer, ovoid or ellipsoid, apicu- late, tomentulose and usually also hispid or hirsutulous with stiff prickly bristles, the stylodia diverging horizontally and radially; endocarp cartilaginous or corneous, detaching at maturity and expelling the seeds; seeds 1 or 2, ellipsoid, the raphe conspicuous, the testa hard, shining, the episperm firm, thick, carti- laginous, the endosperm abundant, fleshy, white, the embryo straight, the coty- ledons flat, the radicle superior.
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Habit
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trees
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Note
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A tropical American family of trees of humid forests, containing one genus
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Distribution
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in southern Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and Andean South America from Venezuela to Bolivia.
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Note
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At fruit dehiscence, the seed is expelled from the follicle through contraction of the endocarp. It remains attached and dangling by a flexuous placental stalk that continues the funiculus. The shiny brownish or reddish seeds presumably then are eaten and dispersed by birds.
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Reference
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Cuatrecasas, J. Brunelliaceae. Fl. Neotropica, Monogr. 2: 1-189. 1970.
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Tag
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Project Name
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Tag
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