Botanical Survey of India | Flora of India

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CONNARACEAE
M.S. Mondal



Shrubs, lianas or rarely small trees. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, sometimes unifoliolate, exstipulate; petiole pulvinate at base; leaflets subopposite, enitre, base often slightly peltate. Inflorescence axillary, pseudoterminal or terminal panicles or racemes, bracteate. Flowers 5-merous, rarely 4-merous, hypogynous, bisexual, rarely unisexual and then plants dioecious, regular; pedicels articulated near the apex. Sepals free or connate at the very base only, persistent, imbricate or valvate. Petals free, or connate at base, imbricate, rarely valvate. Stamens 10, in 2 whorls, free or coherent at the base, inner whorl often shorter and imperfect; anthers dorsifixed in the lower half, curving outwards in anthesis, dehiscing lengthwise and introrse; pollen grains oblate-spheroidal to prolate-spheroidal to prolate, medium sized, tricolporate; colpus long slit like or tapering; endoaperture simple, with granules or with definite operculum; exine rugulo-reticulate to finely or coarsely reticulate. Disc absent or poorly developed. Pistils 5, rarely 1 - 3, free, episepalous; ovary 1-loculed, with 2, nearly basal to axile, collateral, orthotropous or anatropous ovules, usually 1 maturing; style (in each carpel), subulate or filiform; stigma capitellate, simple or 2-lobed. Fruit dry, one-seeded follicle, usually opening by a ventral slit, sometimes indehiscent. Seeds large, often with an aril, endospermous or not; cotyledons thick, flat.

Circumtropical, predominantly developed in Africa and S.B. Asia, (Malesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka); 16 genera and about 300 - 350 species; 4 genera and 16 species in India.

Literature. SCHELLENBERG, G. (1938). In Engl., Das Pflanzenr. Heft. 103: 1 - 326. LEENHOUTS, P.W. (1958). Flora Malesiana Ser. I, 5: 495 - 541. MONDAL, M.S. (1990). Pollen morphology and systematic relationships of the families Sabiaceae (s.l.) and Connaraceae. New Delhi.



KEY TO THE GENERA


1a. Calyx accrescent; pistils 4 - 5 2
b. Calyx not accrescent; pistil 1 3
2a. Calyx imbricate, immediately after flowering conically contracted or so, appressed and hard in fruit; petals 2 - 3 times longer than the sepals; seeds enveloped by a loose arilloed 4. Rourea
b. Calyx valvate, not conically contracted and not appressed to the fruit; petals almost equal or slightly longer than the sepals; seeds provided with sarcotesta 1. Cnestis
3a. Leaves tri to multifoliolate; inflorescence a large, terminal, panicle; sepals, petals and stamens glandular; floral epidermis with glandular-capitate hairs; seeds non endospermous 2. Connarus
b. Leaves unifoliolate; inflorescence axillary, small, often glomerulate; floral parts non glandular; floral epidermis devoid of glandular-capitate hairs; seeds endospermous 3. Ellipanthus


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