Rhabdodendraceae

Abstract

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves entire, alternate, gland-dotted, with small peltate hairs beneath; stipules absent but with leaf-base flanges in two species. Inflorescences of axillary racemes or compound racemes; bracts and prophylls small and reduced to scales. Flowers hermaphrodite; receptacle broadly cupuliform, slightly concave; calyx very short, the lobes 5 or indistinct; petals (4)5, imbricate, sepaloid, caducous, oblong or oblong-elliptic, the apex rounded or minutely apiculate, minutely punctate; disk absent; stamens numerous (27–53) with short flattened filaments, anthers linear, erect, basifixed, caducous, 4-locular, dehiscing longitudinally; ovary sessile, globose, glabrous, unilocular, inserted at base of receptacle; ovules (1)2, basally attached, campylotropous; style gynobasic, thick, elongated, the stigmatic surface on outermost side ascending from base or middle to apex. Fruit a small globose drupe, borne on a short stipe in cupuliform receptacle; exocarp thin; endocarp slightly woody; seed 1, reniform-globose, exalbuminous, with thin testa; cotyledons thick, fleshy, conferruminate; radicle small, bent inwards towards hilum; germination cryptocotylar.