Scleropyrum Arn., nom. cons.

Trees, often with axillary spines, evergreen. Leaves alternate. Flowers crowded in short catkin-like axillary spikes at the leafless nodes and branchlets, polygamous. Perianth-tube of male solid and free, of female and in bisexual flowers adnate to the ovary; perianth-lobes 4 or 5, valvate or subimbricate with a tuft of hairs on the face; stamens 4 or 5, inserted at opposite to and at the base of the perianth-lobes, short; filaments bifid; anther-thecae separate, individually stalked, dehiscing transversely; disc annular, undulate; ovary inferior, enclosed by the perianthtube; style short, stout; stigmas large, peltate; ovules 3, pendulous from the top of a free central column. Fruits drupaceous, with thick pedicel, crowned by the remains of the perianth-lobes, indehiscent; exocarp thick, fleshy; endocarp hard; seed solitary, subglobose; endosperm copious; embryo terete, central; cotyledons oblong.

India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indo-china, Thailand to Malaysia, ca 6 species; one in India.

List of Lower Taxa