Trees or shrubs, evergreen or deciduous. Stipules adnate to or free from petiole.
Leaves spirally arranged, coriaceous, closely reticulate, glabrous or pubescent on nerves
beneath; stipules adnate to or free from the petiole; petiole with a stipular scar or not.
Flowers axillary or subaxillary on short small-leaved shoots or very rarely terminal,
solitary or paired, bisexual, fragrant. Perianth parts 6 - 21 in 2 or more series, 3 - 6-merous, not differentiated into sepals and petals, mostly subequal. Stamens 20 or
more, many-seriate, flat; anthers introrse or latrorse, dehiscing laterally or sublaterally;
connective produced into an appendage. Gynoecium stipitate; carpels numerous or few,
rarely one, usually free, sometimes concrescent; ovules 1 - 2 or rarely more in each carpel;
style subulate, decurrent. Fruiting carpels free or rarely concrescent, laxly spaced on an
elongate spike, dehiscing along dorsal suture or rarely tardily irregularly dehiscent with
the fleshy carpels rotting away, leaving cartilaginous hook-like midribs, persistent on
axis. Seeds 1 or more in each carpel, pendulous by a long elastic stalk.
Subtropical and temperate Asia from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Myanmar to China, Japan, Thailand and Malesia; ca 50 species, 12 species in India.
Notes.
The genus as circumscribed here includes the genera Alcimandra Dandy
and Paramichelia Hu.
Literature.
HU, CHANG-CHIH (1940) Paramichelia, a new genus of Magnoliaceae. Sunyatsenia 4:
142 - 145.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
1a. Perianth parts always more than 4 cm long
2
b. Perianth parts usually less than 4 cm long
5
2a. Petioles glabrous; lamina of leaves ovate-lanceolate
