1. Tetracera Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 1: 533. 1753.
锡叶藤属 xi ye teng shu
Delima Linnaeus.
Evergreen shrubs or climbers. Leaves simple, alternate, petiolate; leaf blade scabrous or smooth, veins pinnate, secondary veins parallel, prominent, margin entire or smooth. Panicles terminal or axillary; bracts and bractlets linear. Flowers bisexual, small, 0.5-3 cm wide, actinomorphic. Sepals (3 or)4 or 5(-15), persistent in fruit, not accrescent, thinly leathery. Petals 3-5, white. Stamens numerous; anthers 2-loculed, with laterally expanded connective, dehiscing longitudinally. Carpels free, 1-5, on flat receptacle; ovules 2 to numerous per carpel. Follicles ovate, irregularly dehiscent. Seeds 1 to numerous, arillate; aril red or purple, fleshy, enclosing at least base of seeds.
About 50 species: tropical and warm-temperate regions, most species in tropical America; two species in China.
Tetracera xui H. Zhu & H. Wang (Guihaia 19: 337. 1999), described from Yunnan, could not be treated here because no material was seen by the authors.
