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FOC | Family List | FOC Vol. 13 | Melastomataceae

21. Memecylon Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 349. 1753.

谷木属 gu mu shu

Shrubs or small trees, often glabrous; branches terete or 4-sided, many-branched. Leaves petiolate or sessile; leaf blade usually leathery, pinnately veined, margin entire. Inflorescences axillary or inserted on leafless stems, cymose or umbellate. Flowers 4-merous. Hypanthium cup-shaped, campanulate, subfunnel-shaped, or semiorbicular, apex repand or shallowly 4-lobed. Petals orbicular, oblong, or ovate, often oblique. Stamens 8, equal, isomorphic; filaments as long as anthers; anthers elliptic, small, longitudinally dehiscent; connective conic, inflated, lengthened, 2-3 × as large as anthers, sometimes abaxially with a circular concave gland. Ovary inferior, subglobose, 1-celled, apex truncate, 8-sulcate, radiated; ovule 6-12, with free central placentation. Fruit a baccate drupe, often globular, apex with hypanthium forming a ring; exocarp usually succulent, 1-seeded. Seed globular, glabrous; seed coat bony; cotyledon crumpled; embryo curved.

About 300 species: tropical Africa, Asia, Australia, Madagascar, and Pacific islands; 11 species (six endemic) in China.

Material usually cannot be reliably identified unless flowers and fruits are both available.


1 Trees to 25 m tall, d.b.h. to 60 cm.   11 M. celastrinum
+ Shrubs or small trees   (2)
       
2 (1) Leaf blade 6-11(-15) × 2-3.8(-7.5) cm   (3)
+ Leaf blade 3.5-8 × 0.6-3.5 cm   (5)
       
3 (2) Leaves sessile or with petiole 2-3 mm; peduncle 2-3 mm.   1 M. lanceolatum
+ Leaves with petiole 5-7(-10) mm; peduncle 5-20 mm   (4)
       
4 (3) Fruit yellowish green, less than 1 cm in diam..   2 M. hainanense
+ Fruit pink to dark red and maturing purple to black, to 1.5 cm in diam..   3 M. caeruleum
       
5 (2) Leaf blade 4.2-5 × as long as broad, base decurrent on petiole.   6 M. luchuenense
+ Leaf blade 1.4-3.2 × as long as broad, base not decurrent on petiole   (6)
       
6 (5) Anther connective abaxially without a circular concave gland   (7)
+ Anther connective abaxially with a circular concave gland   (8)
       
7 (6) Leaf blade scabrous on both surfaces.   4 M. ligustrifolium
+ Leaf blade glabrous and glossy on both surfaces.   10 M. nigrescens
       
8 (6) Fruit with 8 raised ribs.   7 M. octocostatum
+ Fruit not ribbed   (9)
       
9 (8) Inflorescences umbellate, forming a very dense spheroid clump of flowers.   5 M. polyanthum
+ Inflorescences cymose   (10)
       
10 (9) Leaf blade on both surfaces glabrous and glossy.   8 M. pauciflorum
+ Leaf blade on both surfaces densely covered with small tubercles and scabrous   9 M. scutellatum

  • List of lower taxa


     

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