Small trees or erect, deciduous shrubs. Leaves alternate, simple, serrulate, mem-branous, stipulate. Inflorescences axillary, pendulous racemes or spikes. Flowers bi-sexual or polygamous, tetramerous; bracts 2, connate at base. Sepals 4, imbricate. Petals 4, free, imbricate; stamens 4 + 4, hypogynous; filaments subulate; anthers versatile, bilocular. Ovary tetracarpellary, syncarpous, superior, tetralocular; placentation axile, ovules indefinite; styles simple; stigmas capitate. Berries erect, tetralocular, many-seeded. Seeds small, arillate; endosperm fleshy; embryo straight, cotyledons elliptic; radicle short.
A monotypic family of subtropical and temperate regions of E. Asia (India, Nepal, Bhutan, N. Myanmar, W. & C. China and Japan), ca 7 - 8 species; one in India.
Literature. LI, H.L. (1943). The genus Stachyurus. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 70: 615 - 628.
Notes. Agardh (1858) separated the genus Stachyurus under a monotypic family Stachyuraceae, but Bentham & Hooker (Gen. Pl. 1: 184. 1862) treated this under the tribe Sauraueae of the family Ternstroemiaceae of Guttiferales and this was followed by Dyer (in Fl. Brit. India 1: 288.1872). Hutchinson (Gen. Fl. Pl. 2: 104 -105.1967) stressed its uniqueness and treated it under a different family in the order Hamamelidales.
A monotypic family of subtropical and temperate regions of E. Asia (India, Nepal, Bhutan, N. Myanmar, W. & C. China and Japan), ca 7 - 8 species; one in India.
Literature. LI, H.L. (1943). The genus Stachyurus. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 70: 615 - 628.
Notes. Agardh (1858) separated the genus Stachyurus under a monotypic family Stachyuraceae, but Bentham & Hooker (Gen. Pl. 1: 184. 1862) treated this under the tribe Sauraueae of the family Ternstroemiaceae of Guttiferales and this was followed by Dyer (in Fl. Brit. India 1: 288.1872). Hutchinson (Gen. Fl. Pl. 2: 104 -105.1967) stressed its uniqueness and treated it under a different family in the order Hamamelidales.
