Shrubs, woody, climbing or scrambling; branches alternate, usually lenticellate in
older parts. Leaves simple, alternate or crowded, sometimes pellucid-punctate, entire
or crenate-serrate, exstipulate, pinnately veined. Flowers small, axillary, solitary,
paired or sometimes fascicled and glomerulate on main branches or on ultimate shoots
or on old woods, unisexual, actinomorphic; parts hypogynous; plants monoecious or
dioecious; pedicels ebracteolate or several bracteolate; torus often highly modified,
globose or broadly columnar. Perianth segments 9 -
16, spirally arranged, free, 2-many
seriate, usually with gradual transition from sepaloid to petaloid segments; the outer
smallest; the next ones gradually larger. Male flowers: Stamens 5 -
60 (-many), entirely
covering the receptacle, spirally arranged on torus immersed in cavities or not; filaments
short, connate at base; anthers 2-locular, extrorse or introrse, longitudinally dehiscent;
connectives often widened, not produced apically. Female flowers: Carpels 20 - 30,
rarely many, free, spirally arranged on torus, only partially closed, 1-locular; style short,
with ventrally arranged stigma; ovules 2 -
5, ventral, bitegmic, crassinucellar, anatropous
or campylotropous. Fruitlets aggregate, composed of modified elongated torus and
sessile juicy drupaceous or berry-like indehiscent subglobose carpels. Seeds 1 - 5, rarely
more; endosperm copious, oily; embryo minute, straight; cotyledons divaricate.
Temperate and tropical S. India, N.E. India, China, W. Malesia and South-east U.S.A .; 2 genera and ca 47 species, 2 genera and 6 species in India
Literature. SMTTH, A. C. (1947) The families Illiciaceae and Schisandraceae. Sargentia 7: 1ยท 224
Temperate and tropical S. India, N.E. India, China, W. Malesia and South-east U.S.A .; 2 genera and ca 47 species, 2 genera and 6 species in India
Literature. SMTTH, A. C. (1947) The families Illiciaceae and Schisandraceae. Sargentia 7: 1ยท 224
KEY TO THE GENERA
| 1a. Torus columnar, covered completely by widely patent fleshy filaments, covering up to the apex; stigma broad, not subulate; fruitlets crowded in a head | 1. Kadsura |
| b. Torus either columnar, with erecto-patent filaments not covering up to apex, or semiglobose with rather distant cavities in which all or majority of anthers are embedded; stigma narrow, subulate; fruitlets scattered on elongated axis | 2. Schisandra |
