Trees or shrubs, rarely lianas, usually oleoresinous (often acrid),
monoecious, dioecious or polygamous. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, simple
or pinnately compound; stipules absent or vestigial. Flowers small, bracteate,
di- or monochlamydeous, regular, unisexual and or bisexual, usually in terminal
or axillary panicles. Sepals 3 - 5 (-7), usually connate below, rarely wholly
connate into a calyx, closed in bud and irregularly splitting at anthesis, often
valvate, caducous or persistent, rarely accrescent. Petals 3 -
5 (-7), distinct,
imbricate, rarely valvate, sometimes accrescent, rarely absent. Disc annular
or cupular, entire or lobed, rarely produced into a gynophore or obsolete.
Stamens as many as petals, or fewer or more to numerous, some often abortive
forming staminodes, biseriate or uniseriate, distinct or basally connate, inserted
on or beneath disc; anthers tetrasporangiate, basi- or dorsitixed; pollen tricolporate
or triporate. Carpel in male flower obsolete or absent, in female or bisexual
flowers (2-) 3 -
5 (-12), syncarpous (often 1, rarely 5 locules develop), rarely
apocarp'ous, usually 1 fertile; ovary superior or inferior, sometimes semi-inferior;
ovule 1 in each locule, pendulous from top or side or from an ascending funicle
ariSing from base of ovary wall; styles connate, or distinct and divergent; stigmas
as many as carpels. Fruit usually a Drupe, rarely a false Drupe with 2-5 stones,
or sometimes a nut placed on or more or less embedded within fleshy hypocarp.
Seeds exalbuminous; cotyledons 2, plano-convex.
Mainly tropical and subtropical, a few temperate; ca 77 genera and
700 species, 23 genera and 68 species in India.
Literature.
BARKLEY, F.A.
(1957) Generic key to the sumac family (Anacardiaceae).
Lloydia 20: 255-265. DING HOU, (1978) Florae Malesianae Praecunores LVI. Anacardiaceae.
Blumea 24: 1 -
41. DING HOU, (1978). Anacardiaceae.ln: Fl. Malesiana. 8: 395 -
548. NASIR,
Y.J. (1983). Anacardiaceae.ln: Fl. Pak. 152: 1 -
22. MUKHERJEE S.K. & DALI CHANDRA
(1983). An outline of the revision of Indian Anacardiaceae. Bull. Bot. Surv. India 25: 52-61.
KEY TO THE GENERA
1a. Carpels free or solitary; leaves simple
2
b. Carpels united (rarely one); leaves rarely simple
