班果藤属 ban guo teng shu

Roydsia Roxburgh.

Woody vines [or clambering shrubs]. Twigs often with lenticels. Stipular spines absent. Leaves alternate, simple; petiole sometimes geniculate, apically often thickened; leaf blade leathery, sometimes with pellucid spots, glabrous or sometimes with trichomes, midvein adaxially with small pustules, margin entire. Inflorescences axillary racemes [or terminal panicles], many flowered; bracts subulate, often caducous. Flowers small. Pedicel short. Sepals (5 or)6, basally connate into a short tube, lobes erect, spreading, or reflexed. Petals absent. Androgynophore terete, short; stamens (15-)20-50(-100); filaments distinct, unequal with outermost shortest; anthers dorsifixed. Gynophore ± as long as filaments; ovary nearly globose or ovoid, glabrous or with trichomes, apically often with vertical grooves, 3(or 4)-loculed, placentation axile; placentae each with 4-10 ovules; style solitary, linear, entire or divided into 3(or 4) subulate stigmas, sometimes unlobed. Fruit drupaceous, ellipsoid, small, surface with lenticels, apex often with persistent style; fruiting pedicel and gynophore ± equal, forming a woody stipe much shorter than fruit. Seeds 1(-3) per fruit, ellipsoid, erect, covered by sarcocarp; seed coat thin; cotyledons fleshy, unequal, larger surrounding smaller.

About seven species: SE Asia; three species in China.

Lower Taxa

• Stixis ovata subsp. fasciculata (King) Jacobs
• Stixis scandens Loureiro
• Stixis suaveolens (Roxburgh) Pierre