Herbs, shrubs, climbers or lianas, erect or creeping, rarely trees, dioecious or rarely
monoecious. Leaves spiral, exstipulate, simple or occasionally compound, entire or
palmately lobed, peltate or not, palmately nerved; petioles often swollen at base and/or
at apex. Inflorescences usually axillary or on old woods, racemes, fascicles, panicles or
cymes; bracts small, often leafy; bracteoles short. Flowers unisexual, actinomorphic or
zygomorphic,2 - 3-merous, small. Perianth free or connate, 2 many-seriate, often
differentaited into calyx and corolla; sepals 6 (1 - 12), in 2 - 4 series each of 3 or
sometimes 4 - 5 sepals, imbricate; petals 3 - 6 in 1 or 2 whorls, usually smaller than
innermost sepals or absent. Male flowers: Stamens 2 -
many; filaments free or variously
connate, often forming peltate synandrium on androphore; anthers 2 or 4-loculed,
transversely or vertically dehiscing; pistillode small or absent. Female flowers: Staminodes 6, usually subulate or absent; carpels 1 -
6, free, superior; styles terminal or basal,
simple or deeply lobed; stigmas terminal, capitate or discoid, entire or lobed; ovules 1
or 2, ventral, amphitropous. Fruits sessile or stalked, drupes or a few drupelets, often
compressed, with subbasal or terminal style-scar; exocarp membranous to coriaceous;
mesocarp fleshy; endocarp straight or strongly curved, horseshoe-shaped, usually bony,
rarely crustaceous, variously ornamented. Seeds globose, reniform or curved, rarely
straight; endosperm ruminate; embryo elongate or ellipsoid; cotyledons foliaceous,
rarely folded.
Mainly tropical, extending to N. America and temperate Asia; 8 tribes with about
73 genera and ca 350 species, 5 tribes with 20 genera and 43 species in India.
Literature.
DIELS, L. (1910) Menispermaceae. In: Engler, Pflanzenr. IV. 94 (Heft 46): 1 -
345.
FORMAN, L. L. (1986) Menispcrmaeeac. In: Fl. Males. I, 10(2): 157 -
253. MIERS, J. (1871) Menispermaceae. Contrib. Bot. 3: 1- 402. THANlKAIMONl, G. (1968) Morphologie des Pollens des Menispermacees. Trav. Sect. Sci. Techn. Inst. Franc. Pondicherry 5: 1 -
56.
THANIKAIMONI, G. (1986) Evolution of
Menispennaceae. Canad. J. Bot. 64: 3130 - 3133. WILKINSON, H.P. (1989) Lear anatomy of the
Menispennaceae, tribe Tiliacoreae Miers. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 99: 125 -
174.
KEY TO THE TRIBES
1a. Perianth scarcely differentiated into sepals and petals
2
b. Perianth very frequently differentiated into sepals and petals
3
2a. Endocarp curved, smooth or fibrous, less ornamented
