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Olacaceae Mirbel ex Candolle
铁青树科 tie qing shu ke
Authors: Huaxing Qiu & Michael G. Gilbert
Shrubs, scandent shrubs, trees, or lianas, sometimes hemiparasitic, often glabrous. Lateral shoots sometimes with bud scales at base. Stipules absent. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite; petiole well developed; leaf blade simple, margin entire; veins usually pinnate, sometimes palmate and 3-5-veined. Inflorescences axillary, rarely also terminal, cymose, fasciculate, racemelike, spikelike, or umbellate, mostly small; bracts small and inconspicuous. Flowers usually bisexual, actinomorphic, 3-7-merous, sometimes heterostylous. Calyx small at anthesis, cupular, discoid, or lobed, sometimes accrescent to partly or wholly covering fruit, sometimes fused to fruit (in Schoepfia). Petals free or basally connate, valvate. Disk cuplike or annular, rarely free glands, sometimes accrescent and covering fruit apex (in Schoepfia). Stamens 3-15, rarely in part staminodes, epipetalous; anthers basi- or medi-fixed, usually 2-loculed, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary usually superior, rarely semisuperior but sometimes apparently inferior through fusion with calyx, 2-5-loculed or semiloculed with apex of ovary 1-loculed; ovules solitary in each locule or semilocule, pendent from apex of free central placenta, usually anatropous, integuments 1 or 2. Style terminal, simple; stigma 2-5-lobed. Fruit a drupe, sometimes with an accrescent calyx. Seed solitary; testa thin; endosperm abundant; embryo small; cotyledons 2-4.
Between 23 and 27 genera and 180–250 species: tropical and warm-temperate regions worldwide; five genera (one endemic) and ten species (three endemic) in China.
Ling Yeou-ruenn. 1988. Olacaceae. In: Kiu Hua-shing & Ling Yeou-ruenn, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 24: 30–46.
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1 |
Leaves palmately 3-5-veined, usually narrowly but distinctly peltate; liana, sometimes with axillary tendrils; inflorescences a dichotomous cyme, often very lax; fruiting pedicel accrescent to 1.5-2.5 cm; fruit dehiscent. |
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4 Erythropalum |
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Leaves pinnately veined, not peltate; tendrils absent; inflorescences fasciculate, racemelike, spikelike, or umbellate; fruiting pedicel to 1 cm, often ± absent; fruit indehiscent. |
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(2) |
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2 (1) |
Inflorescences umbellate, sometimes compound with umbels arranged along short axis; fruit oblately ± pear-shaped, 3-4.5 cm wide, wider than long. |
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2 Malania |
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Inflorescences fasciculate, racemose, or spicate (sometimes in cymes in Ximenia); fruit ± globose, ellipsoid, or ovoid, 0.5-3 cm wide, longer than wide. |
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(3) |
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3 (2) |
Staminodes present; petals glabrous on inside; calyx enlarged, free from and partly or entirely enveloping fruit. |
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3 Olax |
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Staminodes absent; petals hairy on inside; calyx not enlarged, not enclosing fruit or completely fused to fruit. |
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(4) |
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4 (3) |
Branchlets usually spiny; stamens 8 or 10; petals with hairs more widely distributed; drupe 2-3 cm wide. |
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1 Ximenia |
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Branchlets without spines; stamens 4 or 5; petals with a tuft of hairs around insertion of each stamen; drupe 0.5-1.4 cm wide. |
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5 Schoepfia |
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Lower Taxa
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