Neumanniaceae Van Tiegh.
~ Flacourtiaceae
Including Aphloiaceae
Habit and leaf form. Shrubs. Leaves alternate (sometimes turning blue on drying); simple. Lamina entire. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins usually serrate.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; anisocytic.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.
Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in fascicles. Inflorescences axillary. Flowers regular.
Perianth sepaline (petals lacking); 4–5. Calyx 4–5; polysepalous; much imbricate.
Androecium 30–100 (‘many’). Androecial members maturing centrifugally; free of the perianth; free of one another. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 30–100 (‘many’); polystemonous; filantherous (the filaments filiform, persistent). Anthers small.
Gynoecium seemingly 1 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium seemingly monomerous; seemingly of one carpel; superior. Carpel apically stigmatic (with a sessile, peltate stigma); 2–10 ovuled (? — ‘few’). Placentation marginal. Ovules biseriate; more or less campylotropous.
Fruit fleshy. The fruiting carpel indehiscent; baccate. Seeds sparsely endospermic. Embryo well differentiated. Embryo curved (horseshoe-shaped).
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. Tropical East Africa, Madagascar, Mascarene Is.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Violiflorae; Violales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Violales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Rosid; unassigned to Eurosid I or Eurosid II; unassigned to order. Species 1–6. Genera 1 (?); only genus, Aphloia.
Very incomplete description. APG (1998) employ the name Aphloiaceae – nomenclature has not been pursued here.
Illustrations. • Sketches of flowering sprays and technical details.
Cite this publication as: ‘L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 14th December 2000. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/’. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000), and Watson and Dallwitz (1991) should also be cited (see References).
