MELIACEAE

Trees or shrubs, rarely undershrubs. Leaves exstipulate, spiral, rarely decussate, usually pinnate rarely simple or 2-pinnate; leaflets opposite or alternate, more or less oblique at base, usually with an indumentum of simple hairs, less frequently of 2-fid or stellate hairs or peltate scales. Inflorescence axillary panicular cymes (thyrses), some times racemose, fasciculate or spicate or flowers in pairs, or solitary. Flowers regular, bisexual or unisexual, plants monoecious, dioecious or polygamous; rudiments of opposite sex usually well-developed in unisexual flowers. Calyx usually 3 - 6-lobed, rarely entire or of free imbricate sepals. Petals generally 3 - 6, free or rarely united at base, sometimes partly fused with staminal tube, imbricate, sometimes valvate or contorted. Stamens generally 4 - 12, inserted outside base of disk or androgynophore; filaments usually connate to form a staminal tube with or without appendages, rarely free; anthers usually sessile, erect, included or exserted, 2-loculed, longitudinally dehiscing. Antherodes in female flowers small, without pollen. Disk or androgynophore intrastaminal, tubular, annular, or obsolete, free or partly adnate to ovary and staminal tube. Ovary generally 2 - 5-locular; locules 2-or many-ovuled; placenta axile, rarely parietal; ovules collateral, superposed or 2-seriate; style single; stigma capitate or discoid. Pistillode in male flowers with a shruken ovary with abortive ovules, long, slender style and less glandular stigma. Fruit a capsule, berry, drupe or rarely a nut; seeds if winged usually attached to a woody columella and if unwinged with a fleshy arillode or sarcotesta, rarely with corky or woody sarcotesta or not, usually nonendospermous, sometimes with fleshy endosperm. Embryo with 2 plano-convex, flat, collateral, superimposed or rarely oblique cotyledons; cotyledons completely fused in Sphaerosacme; radicle usually superior, included or extending to surface.

A medium-sized family of woody plants comprising 51 genera and ca 575 species, distributed in the tropics and subtropics; 19 genera and 70 species in India.

Literature. BAHADUR, K.N.(1988). Monograph on the genus Toona (Meliaceae).

KEY TO THE GENERA

1a. Plants dioecious; buds naked; locules usually 1 - 2-ovuled; seeds not winged; sarcotesta fleshy

2

b. Plants monoecious; buds protected by scale leaves; locules 3-or more-ovuled; seeds winged or not; sarcotesta corky or woody

16

2a. Staminal tube appendaged

3

b. taminal tube not appendaged

13

3a. Fruit a dehiscent capsule

4

b. Fruit an indehiscent berry or drupe

9

4a. Stamens inserted on rim of staminal tube

5

b. Stamens almost always inserted within throat of staminal tube

8

5a. Capsules usually 2-valved

16. Trichilia

b. Capsules 3 - 10-valved

6

6a. Indumentum with a mixture of simple, 2-fid as well as stellate hairs; petals adnate to staminal tube below

9. Munronia

b. Indumentum with simple hairs only; petals free from staminal tube

7

7a. Leaves 3-foliolate; rachis winged

10. Naregamia

b. Leaves simple; petioles not winged

17. Turraea

8a. Flowers linear or oblong; disk annular, rarely patelliform, or absent; anthers locellate; locules 1-seeded

4. Chisocheton

b. Flowers oblong; disk cup-shaped or tubular; anthers not locellate; locules usually 2-seeded

7. Dysoxylum

9a. Fruit a berry

19. Walsura

b. Fruits drupaceous

10

10a. Petioles without glands

6. Cipadessa

b. Petioles with a pair of sunken glands at base

11

11a. Leaves 3-foliolate; flowers bisexual

12. Sandoricum

b. Leaves uni-, 2-or 3-pinnate; flowers bisexual and male

12

12a. Leaves unipinnate with an indumentum of simple hairs; stigma 3-lobed; drupes 1-seeded; endocarp thin

3. Azadirachta

b. Leaves 2 - 3 -pinnate with an indumentum of stellate hairs; stigma 4 - 8-lobed; drupes 3 - 8-seeded; endocarp stony

8. Melia

13a. Indumentum with a mixture of simple and stellate hairs and peltate scales; anthers in one whorl

14

b. Indumentum of simple hairs only; anthers in 2 whorls of 5 each

15

14a. Indumentum with stellate hairs and peltate scales; inflorescence usually an axillary panicle; fruit aberry, rarely a nut or capsule

1. Aglaia

b. Indumentum with simple, rarely 2-fid or stellate hairs; inflorescence a spike or spicate panicle; fruit acapsule

2. Aphanamixis

15a. Petals adnate to staminal tube below; anthers of lower whorl appendaged; fruit a berry

11. Reinwardtiodendron

b. Petals free from staminal tube anthers not appendaged; fruit a capsule

14. Sphaerosacme

16a. Stamens completely free

15. Toona

b. Stamens completely or partly adnate to staminal tube

17

17a. Mangrove plants; seeds not winged

18. Xylocarpus

b. Non-mangrove plants; seeds winged

18

18a. Locules less than 12-seeded; seeds attached to the top of 5-ridged columella, without seed scars, winged at both ends

13. Soymida

b. Locules many-seeded; seeds attached laterally in tiers on 3 - 5-angled and ridged columella, with seed scars, with a terminal wing

5. Chukrassia

List of Lower Taxa