Sphyranthera Hook.f.

Shrubs or trees, dioecious, evergreen. Leaves alternate, entire along margins, penninerved, exstipulate, petiolate. Male inflorescences axillary or ramiflorous, somewhat fasciculate, manyflowered, pedunculate or epedunculate, bracteate; pedicels slender, often articulate; sepals 4, free, sub imbricate in bud, bearded at apex; petals 4, free, alternating with sepals, bilobed almost to base; disc-glands 4, thin, bilobed at apex; stamens 8 - 10, free; filaments shortly bifid at apex with broadened connectives; anther-locules at tips of filament-lobes, separating from one another, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillodes absent. Female inflorescences axillary or cauliflorous, more or less umbellate, 2 - 4-flowered, pedunculate or epedunculate, bracteate; pedicels slender, often wiry, often articulate; sepals 4 or 5, imbricate in bud; petals absent; disc glands 3 or 4, opposite to or alternating with sepals, variously shaped; staminodes absent; ovary subglobose, trilocular; ovules solitary in each locule; styles 3, free, deflexed, quadrifid or multifid with numerous fibrous-laciniate branches. Fruits depressed, tricoccous, glabrous; seeds subglobose.

Endemic to Andaman & Nicobar Islands, with 2 species.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1 a. Leaves 2.5 - 12 x 1 - 4 cm, stiffly coriaceous; lateral nerves 4 - 7 pairs; nervules obscure above; petioles 2 - 10 mm long; male pedicels 2.5 - 4 mm long, articulate; female pedicels 2 - 10 mm long, articulate, scattered pubescent; styles quadrifid; fruiting pedicels and peduncles not wiry

1. Sphyranthera airyshawii

b. Leaves 8 - 26 x 3.5 - 15 cm, thinly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous; lateral nerves 6 - 10 pairs; nervules somewhat prominent above; petioles 6 - 25 mm long; male pedicels 8 - 12 mm long, not articulate; female pedicels 5 - 50 mm long, not articulate, glabrous or almost so; styles multifid with numerous fibrous-laciniate branches; fruiting pedicels and peduncles wiry

2. Sphyranthera lutescens

List of Lower Taxa