Sonneratiaceae
Shahina Ghazanfar
National Herbarium, Agricultural Research Council, Rawalpindi.
Mangrove or seacoast trees. Leaves simple, opposite, exstipulate. Flowers conspicuous, bisexual; l-3 or in corymbs, usually terminal, ebracteate. Sepals persistent, 4-8 united, segmented at the top; valvate. Petals 4-8, alternating with the sepals, or absent. Stamens 12-many, multiseriate. Ovary superior, 4-multilocular; placentation axile; style single. Fruit a berry or a capsule; seeds many.
A family of two genera, one confined to SE Asia and Malaysia, the other extending from tropical East Africa to N. Australia and Polynesia. Represented here by 1 species.
Sonneratiaceae has previously been included in Lythraceae or Punicaceae, but has been separated on account of its superior, 4-multilocular ovary, ebracteate flowers and hygrophilous habit.
Acknowledgements: We are grateful to the United States Department of Agriculture for financing this research under PL.480. Thanks are also due to Messrs. B.L. Burtt, I.C. Hedge and Miss J. Lamond of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, for their helpful suggestions.
