Miliusa Leschen. ex DC.

Small trees or shrubs, sometimes scandent, dioecious or polygamous. Leaves ovate or elliptic, membranous, pubescent or glabrate. Flowers usually bisexual, sometimes unisexual, axillary or often apparently extra-axillary due to the development of young shoots on the peduncle, solitary or 2 - 3-flowered fascicles or cymes; bracts ovate, elliptic or obovate, the upper ones often foliaceous. Sepals 3, valvate. Petals 6 (3 + 3), free, valvate in buds; outer petals sepaloid, subequal to sepals; inner ones larger, thickened and subsaccate at base, cohering when young by their margins, at length free. Torus elongated. Stamens definite or indefinite; anthers ovoid, extrorse; connectives concealing the anther-thecae, rounded at top, sometimes apiculate. Carpels indefinite, linear-oblong; ovules 1 - 10; style oblong or very short; stigma club-shaped. Ripe carpels many, globose or oblong, thin-walled, stalked or subsessile. Seeds 1 - many.

India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Borneo, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand; ca 40 species, 14 species in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Pedicels less than 1 cm long

2

b. Pedicels more than 1 cm long

6

2a. Leaves 12 - 25 cm long

3

b. Leaves up to 10 cm long

4

3a. Sepals ca 10 mm long; inner petals ovate

2. Miliusa dolichantha

b. Sepals 3 - 4 mm long; inner petals oblong-lanceolate

6. Miliusa longiflora

4a. Young branches strigose

3. Miliusa eriocarpa

b. Young branches glabrous or pubescent

5

5a. Leaves ovate or ovate-lanceolate; midrib glabrous above

8. Miliusa montana

b. Leaves oblong-elliptic or oblong-lanceolate; midrib pubescent above

5. Miliusa indica

6a. Leaves ca 10 cm long or shorter

7

b. Leaves more than 10 cm long

8

7a. Stamens many, in a few series

14. Miliusa wightiana

b. Stamens 8 - 12, uniseriate

10. Miliusa nilagirica

8a. Leaves tomentose

9

b. Leaves pubescent or glabrous

10

9a. Sepals ca 1 mm long; sepals and outer petals linear-lanceolate

12. Miliusa tomentosa

b. Sepals 2 - 4 mm long; sepals and outer petals ovate

13. Miliusa velutina

10a. Pedicels 5 - 8 cm long

7. Miliusa macrocarpa

b. Pedicels 1 - 2.5 cm long

11

11a. Inner petals ovate, not more than 1.5 cm long, pubescent

11. Miliusa tectona

b. Inner petals ovate, not more than 1.5 cm long, pubescent

12

12a. Pedicels pubescent; flowers sometimes unisexual, polygamous

4. Miliusa globosa

b. Pedicels glabrous; flowers always bisexual

13

13a. Inner petals ca 1.5 cm long, united at base, thin; stalk of ripe carpels ca 10 mm long

1. Miliusa andamanica

b. Inner petals ca 0.5 cm long, free, thick; stalk of ripe carpels ea 4.5 mm long

9. Miliusa mukerjeeana

List of Lower Taxa