5. Antirhea Commerson ex Jussieu, Gen. Pl. 204. 1789.
毛茶属 mao cha shu
Authors: Tao Chen & Charlotte M. Taylor
Guettardella Champion ex Bentham.
Trees or shrubs, dioecious, unarmed. Raphides absent. Leaves opposite [or sometimes whorled], often with domatia; quaternary venation lineolate [or sometimes regularly areolate]; stipules caducous or persistent, interpetiolar, generally triangular to oblong. Inflorescences axillary, cymose with axes dichotomous or often markedly scorpioid, few flowered with flowers often fewer on pistillate plants, pedunculate, bracteate or bracts reduced. Flowers sessile, unisexual. Calyx sericeous outside; limb truncate or 4[or 5]-lobed; lobes often unequal. Corolla white or yellow, salverform in staminate flowers, funnelform in pistillate flowers, with tube often prolonged and slender, inside glabrous or pubescent in throat; lobes 4[or 5], obtuse, imbricate in bud. Stamens 4[or 5], inserted in corolla throat, partially exserted; filaments short or reduced; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary 2-8-celled, ovule 1 in each cell, apical and pendulous, with funicle thickened; stigma capitate or 2- or 3-lobed, included. Fruit dark purple, drupaceous, thinly fleshy, ellipsoid to subglobose and smooth, with calyx limb and subtending bracts persistent; pyrene 1, 2-8-celled with 1 seed in each cell, ellipsoid, woody or bony; seeds cylindrical, medium-sized, without endosperm; cotyledons compressed and minute; radicle clavate and ascending.
Thirty-six species: tropical Asia, Australia, Madagascar, Mascarene Islands, Pacific islands; one species (endemic) in China.
Antirhea has traditionally included both paleotropical and neotropical species, but the bisexual and polygamous neotropical plants are now included in other genera; even so, some authors still incorrectly give a pantropical range for this genus.
Chaw and Darwin (Tulane Stud. Zool. & Bot. 28: 50, 59, 69. 1992) recognized three subgenera of Antirhea. Antirhea chinensis is the type of A. subg. Guettardella (Champion ex Bentham) Chaw, the largest subgenus.
