Schima Reinw. ex Blume

Evergreen trees. Leaves membranous to coriaceous. Flowers usually on erect peduncles, solitary or in short racemes; bracteoles 2. Sepals 5, subequal. Petals 5, larger than sepals, slightly connate at base, outermost concave and cucullate. Stamens numerous, in 3 - 5 rows, adnate to the base of petals. Ovary usually 5, rarely 4 - 6-loculed; ovules 2 - 6 in each locule, lateral, subpendulous; styles simple or lobed at apex; stigmas broad. Capsules depressed globose, woody, dehisces loculicidally to about half their length, with a persistent central axis. Seeds flat, reniform, dorsally winged, hilum central; endosperm scanty, cotyledons foliaceous, flat or crumpled, acumbent; radical inferior, curved upwards.

A monotypic, polymorphic genus with 9 species and 3 varieties in Tropical Asia; 2 varieties in India.

Literature. BLOEMBERGEN S. (1952). A critical study in the complex- polymorphous genus Schima (Theaceae). Reinwardtia 2: 133 -183.

List of Lower Taxa