Dioecious trees or shrubs, without milky latex. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, eglandular. Stipules present. Flowers in axillary fascicles: male fascicles many-flowered; female few-flowered. Male flowers: pedicels jointed; sepals 4-6, free, imbricate; petals 0; disk glands extrastaminal; stamens 5-16, borne on a column; pistillode 3-fid, hairy. Female flowers: sepals as in the male flowers; petals 0; disk cup-shaped, crenulate; ovary 3-locular with 1 ovule per loculus; styles 3. Fruit ellipsoid, splitting into 2-valved cocci, covered in bristles and tubercles. Seeds flattened-ovoid. Worldwide: A pantropical genus of 10-12 species, two in the Congo Basin and another in Madagascar. DRC: 1 taxon. |
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