Shrubs or trees, erect, scandent or climbing, unarmed or occasionally
armed. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, exstipulate. Flowers bisexual, rarely
unisexual (the plants then dioecious), bracteate, in axillary racemes, panicles,
spikes, cymes, fascicles or solitary in the axils. Sepals 3-6, forming a cupuJar
calyx, 3-6 toothed or lobed, rarely absent. Petals 3-6, free or connate at base,
occasionally tubular. Disc intrastaminal or extrastaminal, annular or consisting
of glands, alternating with the petals. Stamens as many as or 2-5 times the
number of petals, some of them staminodial. Staminodial filaments distinct
or adnate to the sepals or petals or connate into a sheath around the style;
anthers tetrasporangiate, opening by longitudinal slits or seldom by terminal
valves. Carpels (2-) 3 (-5), united to form a superior or inferior ovary; ovary
2-5-loculed at the base, 1-loculed above; style 1; stigma 2-5 -lobed; ovule solitary
in each locule. Fruit drupaceous or a nut, 1-seeded, often included in an
accrescent calyx.
Pantropical; 25 genera and 250 species, 6 genera and 16 species
in India.
SLEUMER, H.( 1935). Olacaceae. In : Eng. & Prantl, Pflanzenfam. ed. 2. 16b:
5-32. SLEUMER, H.( 1980). A taxonomic account of Olacaceae of Asia, Malesia and the adjacent
areas. Blumea 26: 145-168. SLEUMER, H. (1984) Olacaceae. Fl. Males. Ser. 1, 10: 1-29.
KEY TO THE GENERA
1a. Climbing tendrillar shrubs; leaves palmatinerved at base; base subpeltate
