77. Rondeletia Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 172. 1753.
郎德木属 lang de mu shu
Authors: Tao Chen & Charlotte M. Taylor
Shrubs or trees, unarmed. Raphides absent. Leaves opposite or rarely verticillate, sometimes with domatia; stipules persistent or caducous, interpetiolar, generally triangular. Inflorescence terminal or infrequently axillary, congested-cymose to paniculate or corymbiform, several to many flowered, pedunculate, bracteate. Flowers sessile to pedicellate, bisexual, distylous. Calyx limb 4- or 5-lobed, with lobes often unequal. Corolla white, yellow, orange, or red, funnelform or salverform with tube often slender and prolonged, inside glabrous or villous, with thickened annular ring at throat; lobes 4 or 5, imbricate in bud, with margins frequently crisped. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted in corolla throat, included or exserted; filaments short or reduced; anthers dorsifixed. Ovary 2-celled, ovules numerous in each cell on axile placentas; stigmas capitate or 2-lobed, included or exserted. Fruit capsular, globose to depressed globose or dicoccous, loculicidally dehiscent into 2 valves with these valves often then splitting, woody to papery, with calyx limb persistent; seeds numerous, small, fusiform or discoid, flattened, winged; endosperm fleshy; embryo small, clavate.
About 20 species: tropical America, one species widely cultivated in tropical regions; one species (introduced) in China.
This genus was formerly circumscribed broadly, to include as many as 140 species, but neotropical taxonomists now separate the species formerly treated in Rondeletia s.l. into a number of smaller genera, notably Arachnothryx Planchon and Rogiera Planchon. The cultivated species treated here belongs to Rondeletia s.s.
