细圆藤属 xi yuan teng shu

Pselium Loureiro.

Woody vines. Leaf blade not or only narrowly peltate, palmately veined. Inflorescences axillary, solitary or 2- or 3-fascicled cymes. Flowers: sepals 9 in 3 whorls, imbricate, outermost 3 minute and bracteolelike, inner 6 larger and concave; petals 6, cuneate or rhombic-obovate, with lateral margins involute and clasping opposite stamen; stamens 6, free or ± connate, anthers dehiscing longitudinally. Female flowers: sepals and petals as in male; staminodes 6, filamentous; carpels 3, style short, stigma 2-parted, lobes 2, lobes and lobules divaricate. Drupes compressed globose, style scar near base; endocarp bony, broadly ovoid to rotund, curved, abaxially covered with conical or short pointed processes on both surfaces; condyle septiform, not perforate. Seed horseshoe-shaped; embryo elongate or narrow, embedded in endosperm; cotyledons terete, much shorter than radicle.

About two or three species: tropical and subtropical Asia; one species in China.

Lower Taxon

• Pericampylus glaucus (Lamarck) Merrill