Boenninghausenia Reichb. ex Meissner, nom. cons.

Herbs, perennial woody; stem and branches cylindric, minutely tubercled, hairy or glabrous. Leaves alternate, bi-or tripinnate; rachis slender, sparsely to densely pubescent or glabrous; leaflets smaller, obovate, obcordate or oblong, green above, pale and glaucous beneath. Inflorescences compound, leafy paniculate cymes, terminal, several to many flowered, sparsely pubescent or glabrous. Bracts green, leafy. Flowers bisexual, cylindric-obovoid or subglobose in buds, white. Calyx 4-lobed, glandular, lobes ovate or suborbicular, persistent. Petals 4, obovate or suborbicular, caducous, stamens 6 - 8, alternately long and short; filaments white; anthers yellow. Disk fleshy, cupular, white, toothed at margins, with minute yellowish glandular protruberances. Ovary 3 - 5-lobed, borne on a long stipe of varying length or subsessile, free abaxially, united adaxially, each with 3 - 6 ovules; styles 3 - 5, ventral, connate above; stigma simple. Fruits capsular, membranous, glandular, splitting ventrally into 3 - 5 distinct fruitlets, endocarp thin; seeds reniform, black, finely granulated or ridged.

Subtropical and temperate Himalayas east to Japan, south to Java and south-east to Philippines; 2 species, both occur in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Flower buds cylindric-obovoid; calyx lobes ovatc; pctals obovatc; gynophore 2 - 8 mm long

1. Boenninghausenia albiflora

b. Flower buds subglobose; calyx lobes suborbicular; petals suborbicular; gynophore if present ca 1 mm long

2. Boenninghausenia sessilicarpa

List of Lower Taxa