Pyrularia Michx.

Trees or shrubs, dioecious, deciduous; young branches and inflorescences white hirsute. Leaves alternate, petiolate, pinnately veined; lateral nerves conspicuous. Inflorescences terminal on leafy axillary shoots, raceme-like or thyrsoid with umbellate branches, spicate, or cymose; female flowers subtended by well-developed leaves, axillary and solitary; bisexual flowers at apex of inflorescences, rarely 1-flowered, bracteate. Flowers polygamous, paired or solitary. Male flowers: perianth-tube turbinate, solid and free, 5-lobed; stamens 5, inserted at the base of the lobes; filaments very short; anthers ovoid, longitudinally dehiscing; ovary and style rudimentary. Female flowers: perianth tube adnate to ovary, 5-lobed, valvate, hairy on the face; disc slightly raised, flat, lobed, between the perianth-lobes; stamens sterile in female flowers; ovary inferior; ovules 2 or 3, pendulous from a free short straight basal column; style columnar, tubular; stigma capitate. Fruits drupaceous, tapering at base, with withered perianth-lobes at apex; seeds globose; embryo short, subterete near the top of the endosperm.

India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and SE. USA, 2 - 3 species; one in India.

List of Lower Taxa