Plukenetia L.

Twining shrubs or undershrubs, monoecious. Leaves alternate, palmately 3 - 5-nerved at base; petioles 2-glandular at apex; stipules persistent. Flowers: in lateral or axillary androgynous racemes, with the female flowers towards the base. Male flowers: minute, fascicled; bracts 3-fid; calyx globose in bud, later valvately 4 or 5-lobed; petals and disc absent; stamens 8 - 13 (- 30), free, with short thick filaments; anthers erect with globose, didymous, parallel or divaricating thecae; pistillode absent. Female flowers: sepals 4 - 5, imbricate, lanceolate; ovary 4-locular; styles connate into a massive column, shortly 4-lobed. Fruits capsular, depressed with a nearly flat crown, dry or fleshy, with 3 or 4 granulate 2-valved cocci; seeds globose or turgidly lenticular, sometimes 3-ribbed on one side; testa crustaceous; endosperm fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat.

Mainly Neotropical, ca 13 species, some in Africa and one in SE. Asia; one in India.

List of Lower Taxa