Shrubs or small trees. Leaves coriaceous, with prominent nerves forming intramarginal loops. Flowers solitary or few in fascicles, axillary or extra-axillary or sometimes
cauliflorous; pedicels with basal scaly distichous bracts. Sepals 3, valvate, several-nerved,
free or cup-shaped, often persistent in fruit. Petals 6 (3 + 3), valvate, coriaceous; outer
petals erect, flat; inner ones smaller, shortly and broadly clawed at base, with upper part
broadened and cohering in a narrow conical vaulted cap over the stamens and carpels.
Stamens many, linear-oblong; anther-thecae remote, dorsal; pollen grains large; connectives produced into oblong or truncate processes. Carpels many, cylindrical; style
linear; stigma simple or bifid; ovule solitary or 2, superposed, subbasal. Ripe carpels
subsessile. Seed 1, sometimes 2 -
4.
India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia,
Indonesia, Philippines, New Guinea and Pacific Islands; ca 115 species, 10 species in
India.
Literature.
NGUYEN, Tien Ban (1974) On the taxonomy of the genus Goniothalamus (Bl.) Hook.
f. & Thoms. I & II. Bot. Zhumal URSS.59: 547 - 555 & 660 - 672.
