马蛋果属 ma dan guo shu

Chaulmoogra Roxburgh; Chilmoria Buchanan-Hamilton.

Trees, dioecious. Leaves alternate; stipules caducous, not seen; petiole present; leaf blade leathery, pinnate-veined, margin entire. Flowers hypogynous, solitary or few in axillary bracteate corymbs (staminate flowers), or in corymbose clusters arising from tubercles on stems and older branches (staminate or pistillate flowers), pedicellate; pedicels articulate, bracteolate; buds globose. Calyx closed in bud, later cupular, subtruncate, 5-dentate or shallowly 3-5-lobed, finally sometimes with 3-5 irregular or orbicular sepals. Petals 5, united at base, fleshy, each with a scale inside at base. Disk and disk glands absent. Staminate flowers: stamens many (ca. 100); filaments free, filiform; anthers basifixed, linear-sagittate, small; pistillode absent. Pistillate flowers: staminodes 10-15; ovary superior, 1-loculed, placentas 5, each with numerous ovules; styles 5, free, columnar; stigmas cordate or peltate, small. Fruit baccate, pericarp thick, woody. Seeds immersed in pulp, numerous, testa thick, crisp; endosperm oily, fleshy; cotyledons compressed-flat.

One species: Asia.

Lower Taxon

• Gynocardia odorata Roxburgh