Sageretia Brongn.

Armed or unarmed shrubs or trees, rarely scandent. Leaves opposite or subopposite, serratures tipped with deciduous, glandular mucro; stipules minute, deciduous. Inflorescence terminal or axillary panicles. Flowers bisexual, pentamerous. Calyx urceolate, persistent; lobes deltoid, acute, keeled inside, thickened towards apex and margin. Petals cucullate, clawed. Stamens enclosed in petals; filaments filiform; anthers 2-loculed, dehiscence longitudinal. Disc saucer-shaped, 5-lobed, fleshy, nectariferous, filling the calyx tube. Ovary glabrous, superior, tricarpellary, 3-loculed, almost immersed in the disc but free from it; style short, thick, 3-loculed; lobes coherent. Drupes 3-loculed, globular or obovate, suffused at base by the adnate, accrescent calyx tube and disc, with 3-coriaceous, indehiscent kernels. Seeds 3, completely filling the kernels; embryo straight; cotyledons flat, obcordate, foliaceous, enclosed in thin, fleshy albumen; testa crustaceous.

North and South America, Asia; 40 species, 8 in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Leaves persistently woolly on lower surface

1. Sageretia brandrethiana

b. Leaves glabrous on lower surface or pubescent, becoming glabrous with age

2

2a. Stamens longer than the petals

3

b. Stamens shorter than or equal to petals

5

3a. Leaves tapering into a long acumen at apex, finely serrulate; lateral nerves 6-8 pairs; flowers pubescent

3. Sageretia hamosa

b. Leaves obtuse or acuminate, distantly serrate; lateral nerves 4-5 pairs; flowers glabrous

4

4a. Leaves more than 2.5 cm long. ovate or elliptic; petals notched

2. Sageretia coimbatorensis

b. Leaves up to 2.5 cm long. rotundate or orbicular; petals notched or mucronate

5. Sageretia kishtwarensis

5a. Flowers glabrous

6

b. Flowers pubescent

7

6a. Leaves less than 2 cm long; petals notched and mucronate

4. Sageretia kashmirensis

b. Leaves more than 2 cm long; petals notched but not mucronate

7. Sageretia thea

7a. Lateral nerves 3-5 pairs

8. Sageretia wallichii

b. Lateral nerves 5-7 pairs

6. Sageretia parviflora

List of Lower Taxa