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(Last Modified On 1/14/2013)
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(Last Modified On 1/14/2013)
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Family
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OLACACEAE
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Contributor
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LORIN I. NEVLING, JR.
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Description
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Armed or unarmed trees, shrubs or perhaps vines, autotrophic or reportedly hemiparasitic. Leaves alternate, sometimes opposite, simple, generally entire, pin- nately veined, petiolate; estipulate. Inflorescences axillary, panicles, racemes, cymes or umbels, often fasciculate. Flowers dichlamydeous, bisexual or rarely polygamodioecious, sometimes polymorphic, actinomorphic, generally small and inconspicuous. Calyx small, gamosepalous, crateriform to campanulate, usually with a 3- to 6-toothed margin, free or basally adnate to the ovary or to the disc, sometimes accrescent. Petals 3-6, usually the same number as calyx lobes, free or connate, valvate or imbricate in bud. Disc sometimes present, simple or cupuli- form. Stamens generally the same number as, or twice the number of, petals, the anthers dehiscing longitudinally or by valves. Pistil 1, the ovary superior or rarely half-inferior, sessile, generally 2- to 5-loculate, the ovules the same number as locules, pendulous, integuments 0, 1 or 2, the style simple, sometimes hetero- morphic, terminal, elongate to obsolete, the stigma often 3-parted. Fruit mostly a drupe, sometimes accompanied by a colorful accrescent calyx.
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Habit
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tree shrub
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Habit
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vine
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Distribution
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A pantropic family of about 25 genera and 300 species. Four genera are known from Panama. A fifth genus, Chaunochitoin, is known from Costa Rica, Guiana and northern Brazil. Whether this disjunction is real or is an artifact of collection is not known at this time.
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Key
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a. Calyx crateriform or cupuliform, free from the ovary, with 3 to 6 lobes or teeth; ovary superior; ovules with 1 or 2 integuments; fruit a drupe; plants root parasites (Ximenia) or autotrophes. b. Petals 5-6, free or connate, glabrous to more or less villous within; stamens 5-6 or 10-12; stigma 3- to 5-lobed; unarmed autotrophic shrubs or trees; leaves and bark with either resin canals or latici- ferous ducts or both. c. Leaves and bark with resin canals and laticiferous ducts; pubes- cence branched; calyx with 5-6 teeth, not accrescent; petals connate; ovary 3- or 4-loculate (by abortion from 5) .-------------------- 1. MINQUARTIA cc. Leaves and bark with laticiferous ducts but lacking resin canals; pubescence unbranched; calyx with 5-6 teeth or lobes, accrescent; petals free; ovary with 3 locules- ----------------------- 2. HEISTERIA bb. Petals 4-5, free, densely set with barbed hairs within; stamens 8-10; stigma minutely capitate; parasitic shrubs or trees, armed with axil- lary spines; leaves and bark lacking laticiferous ducts and resin canals ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. XIMENIA aa. Calyx reduced, adnate to the ovary; ovary half-inferior; ovules lacking integument; spurious fruit drupaceous (eccentrically annulate at the apex); plants unarmed root parasites- --------------------------- 4. SCHOEPFIA
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