Hexanthus Loureiro; Iozoste Nees; Malapoënna Adanson; Pseudolitsea Yen C. Yang; Tetranthera Jacquin.

Trees or shrubs, evergreen or deciduous, dioecious. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or verticillate, pinninerved. Umbels, or umbellate cymes or panicles, solitary or clustered in leaf axils; involucral bracts 4-6, decussate, persistent at flowering. Perianth tube long or short, segments usually 6, in 2 whorls of 3 each, equal or unequal, rarely lacking or 8. Flowers unisexual. Male flowers: fertile stamens 9 or 12, rarely more, in 3 or 4 whorls of 3 each; filaments of 1st and 2nd whorls usually eglandular, of 3rd and 4th 2-glandular at base; anthers all introrse, 4-celled, cells opening by lids; rudimentary pistil present or lacking. Female flowers: staminodes as many as stamens of male flowers; ovary superior; style conspicuous. Fruit seated on perianth tube; perianth tube ± enlarged, shallowly discoid or deeply cup-shaped or unaltered at fruit.

Litsea mishmiensis J. D. Hooker (Fl. Brit. India 5: 161. 1886; see FRPS 31: 336. 1982) was described from the border region between NE India and SE Xizang.

Tetranthera floribunda Champion ex Bentham (Hooker’s J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 5: 199. 1853) was described from Hong Kong but could not be treated here because no material was seen by the present authors.

Litsea chaffanjonii H. Léveillé (Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 12: 182. 1913) is a synonym of Symplocos stellaris Brand in the Symplocaceae (see Fl. China 15: 250. 1996), according to Lauener (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 35: 279. 1977).

Litsea mairei H. Léveillé and L. myricopsis H. Léveillé (Cat. Pl. Yun-Nan, 150. 1916) are synonyms of Myrica nana A. Chevalier and M. esculenta Buchanan-Hamilton ex D. Don, respectively, in the Myricaceae (see Fl. China 4: 275-276. 1999), according to Lauener (Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 40: 505. 1983).

About 200 species: mainly in tropical and subtropical Asia, a few species in Australia and from North America to subtropical South America; 74 species (47 endemic) in China.

(Authors: Huang Puhua (黄普华 Huang Pu-hwa), Li Jie (李捷), Li Xiwen (李锡文 Li Hsi-wen); Henk van der Werff)