6. Toricelliaceae
鞘柄木科 qiao bing mu ke
Authors: Jenny Qiuyun Xiang & David E. Boufford
Trees or shrubs, dioecious. Branches spreading, thick, with conspicuous leaf scars; pith soft, white, wide in relation to twig. Leaves alternate, petiolate, estipulate, simple; petiole elongate, expanding at base, sheathing; leaf blade broadly cordate to nearly orbicular, papery, unlobed or slightly lobed, lobes 5–7(–9), glabrous or pubescent, trichomes multicellular, glandular, veins palmate, 5–7(–9), margin entire or serrate. Inflorescences racemiform panicles, terminal, pendulous. Flowers unisexual, shortly pedicellate, bracteolate. Staminate flowers: calyx 5-dentate, teeth small, unequal; petals 5, narrowly elliptic, apex inflexed; stamens 5, filaments short, anthers oblong, locules 2, longitudinally dehiscent; vestigial styles 1–3, minute. Carpellate flowers: calyx lobes 3–5, unequal, acutely triangular; petals and vestigial stamens absent; ovary inferior, locules 3 or 4, often only 1 locule with a pendulous ovule; styles 3, persistent, 3–4 mm, thick, apex often 2-lobed; stigmas 3, often curved and extending downward. Fruit drupelike, purple red or black, ovoid or obliquely ovoid, crowned by persistent calyx and styles; stone of fruit with a triangular germination valve. Seeds linear, curved; embryo at apex of fleshy endosperm.
One genus and two species: Bhutan, China, N India, Nepal, Sikkim; two species (one endemic) in China.
Hu Wenkuang. 1990. Toricellia. In: Fang Wenpei & Hu Wenkuang, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 56: 35–38.
