Buffalo or oil nut [Genus Pyrus and Latin -aria, connecting, alluding to pear-shaped fruit] Buffalo or oil nut [Genus Pyrus and Latin -aria, connecting, alluding to pear-shaped fruit]

Shrubs [trees], dioecious [polygamous]. Leaf blades herbaceous; venation brochidodromous, conspicuous. Pedicels present. Flowers: petals recurved [spreading]; nectary prolonged into scales between filament bases; styles long and cylindric (staminate flowers) or short and conic (pistillate flowers); stigma capitate, 2–3-lobed. Pseudodrupes crowned with expanded disc surrounded by swollen petal bases.

Species 2 (1 in the flora): e, se United States, Asia.

The sexual condition in Pyrularia is not clear, which is reflected in varied descriptions. The genus has been called dioecious (M. L. Fernald 1950), subdioecious (H. A. Gleason and A. Cronquist 1991), and polygamous (Xia N. H. and M. G. Gilbert 2003). The anthers and filaments in P. pubera are smaller on pistillate flowers, do not contain pollen, and are considered staminodes. Thus, at least this species is functionally dioecious. The polygamous condition reported for the Chinese species P. edulis (Wallich) A. de Candolle requires further investigation.

Lower Taxon

• Pyrularia pubera Michaux