Eurya Thunb.

Evergreen shrubs or trees; stems dark brown, terete or striate. Leaves alternate, simple, sessile or subsessile, undulate, crenate-serrate or serrate, glabrous or sparsely pubescent beneath, exstipulate. Flowers small, unisexual, axillary, solitary or in fascicles, actinomorphic, bracteate and bracteolate. Sepals 5(- 6), free or shortly connate, elliptic, ovate to orbicular, glabrous or pubescent outside, imbricate, persistent. Petals 5(- 8), white, greenish, pinkish or yellow, connate at base, elliptic oblong, obovate, imbricate. Stamens 5 - 20, unequal, free or connate at base, sometimes adnate to the petals, glabrous; filaments filiform; anthers basifixed, apiculate. Ovary ovoid to subglobose, 2 - 5 carpellary, syncarpous, glabrous or pubescent, usually 3, rarely 2 - 5-loculed, ovules many in each locule, placentation axile; styles as many as carpels, free or connate; stigmas 2 - 5, glabrous or hairy. Berries ovoid, globose or subglobose, brown to bluish, tipped by persistent style, indehiscent. Seeds small, numerous, dark brown, angular, tubercled, reticulate with fleshy endosperm.

In Tropical and subtropical Asia and a few in C. America, ca 88 species; 8 in India.

Literature. VESQUE, M.J.(1895). Revisio du genre Eurya Thunb. Bull. Soc. Bot. France 42: 151 - 161. KOBUSKI, C.E.(1938). Studies in Theaceae-3. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 25: 299 - 359. KOBUSKI C.E. (1939). Studies in Theaceae-4. J. Arn. Arb. 20: 361 - 374.

1a. Branchlets and apical buds glabrous; leaf apices obtuse to subacute; sepals glabrous outside

2

b. Branchlets and apical buds pilose; leaf apices acuminate; sepals pubescent outside

3

2a. Leaves undulate and bluntly serrate; anthers longer than filaments; styles ca 0.8 mm long

5. Eurya japonica

b. Leaves closely sharp serrate; anthers shorter than filaments; styles 1.5 - 2.5 mm long

6. Eurya nitida

3a. Leaf veins deeply impressed adaxially; male flowers with 5 stamens; female flowers with styles free to base

4

b. Leaf veins not deeply impressed adaxially; male flowers with 11 - 20 stamens; female flowers with styles free to base or not

5

4a. Branchlets and apical buds sparsely pilose; anthers basifixed; thalamus not pilose

3. Eurya cavinervis

b. Branchlets and apical buds densely pilose; anthers dorsifixed; thalamus densely pilose at the base of rudimentary ovary

2. Eurya arunachalensis

5a. Leaves elliptic-oblong to elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate; male flowers with ca 17 stamens; female flowers with glabrous or pubescent ovary

6

b. Leaves elliptic or oblanceolate, retuse or acuminate; male flowers with ca 20 stamens; female flowers with ovary always glabrous

7

6a. Pedicels 3-bracteolate; male flowers with chambered anthers; berries glabrous, rarely with few hairs

4. Eurya cerasifolia

b. Pedicels 2-bracteolate; male flowers with unchambercd anthers; berries densely pubescent

7. Eurya trichocarpa

7a. Shrubs 3 - 4 m high; leaves elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate, obscurely acuminate; styles less than 1 mm long, obscurely trifid

8. Eurya sp.

b. Shrubs or trees, 5 - 12 m tall; leaves elliptic-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate; styles 1.5 - 2 mm long, prominently trifid

1. Eurya acuminata

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List of Lower Taxa