Dodecadenia grandiflora Nees

Family Description

Evergreen or decidious trees or shrubs, often aromatic; twigs with or without conspicous terminal vegetative buds and rings of bud scale scars. Leaves alternate, sometimes opposite or clustered at branch ends, simple, sometimes shallowly lobed near apex, pinnately veined or strongly 3-veined, exstipulate. Flowers in panicles, eacemes or umbels, umbels often enclosed by subpersistent scales and arranged in fascicles or racemes; unisexual or bisexual, actinomorphic. Perianth segments usually 6, free, in two whorls of 3. Fertile stamens usually 9, rarely 6 or 12, in whorls of 3, innermost filaments usually bearing glands, often with an inner whorl of 3 staminodes; female flowers with 9 or 12 staminodes; anthers dehiscing by 2 or 4 valves. Ovary usually superior, ovile 1, apical, style short, rarely filiform. Fruit a drupe usually borne on enlarged cup-shaped remains of perianth, rarely perianth completely absent or totally enclosing drupe.

Genus Description

Evergreen trees; shoots with conspicuous terminal vegetative buds. Leaves alternats, not clustered, pinnately veined. Flowers bisexual, solitary or few in sessile umbels on previous year,s wood, surrounded by persistent scales. Perianth segments 6. Fertile stamens 9-15, anthers 4-celled, all introse. Fruit ellipsoid, seated on enlarged entire perianth cup.

Species description

Tree to 15m, shoots with elllipsoid terminal vegetative buds. Leaves coraiceous, elliptic-oblanceolate, 8-11 x 2-3cm, shhortly acuminate, base cuneate, almost glabrous, finely reticulate on both surfaces, lateral veins 7-10 pairs, slender, scarcely prominent; petioles 5-12mm. Flower buds subsessile, globose, scales appressed silky, containing 1-2 large flowers 1.4-1.6cm across. Perianth segments oblong 7-9mm. Fruit c 1.5 x 1cm, reddish, borne on thick woody perianth cup 8-9mm across, on stout pedicel 3-5mm.

Unlocalized