Phellinaceae (Loes.) Takht.
Alternatively Phellineaceae
~ Aquifoliaceae
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs; non-laticiferous and without coloured juice. Leaves evergreen; (pseudo-) whorled, or alternate (more or less crowded towards the branch tips); leathery; simple. Lamina entire. Leaves exstipulate.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Included phloem absent. Xylem with tracheids. Wood parenchyma scanty paratracheal.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants dioecious. Female flowers with staminodes. Gynoecium of male flowers pistillodial.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in inflorescences; in racemes, or in panicles. Inflorescences axillary; racemes or panicles or mixed panicles. Flowers regular; 46 merous; cyclic. Free hypanthium absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8, or 10, or 12; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 46 (small); 1 whorled; gamosepalous (more or less connate at the base), or polysepalous (?); regular; open in bud. Corolla 46; 1 whorled; polypetalous (the petals with a small, inflexed apiculus); valvate; fleshy.
Androecium 46. Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 46; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; tetrasporangiate. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate (colporoidate).
Gynoecium 25 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth to isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 25 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious, or eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 25 locular; sessile. Gynoecium more or less non-stylate (the stigma sessile). Stigmas 1 (lobed). Placentation axile to apical. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; slightly campylotropous, or hemianatropous.
Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe. The drupes with separable pyrenes (as many stones as locules). Fruit 25 seeded. Seeds copiously endospermic.
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. New Caledonia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli (?). Dahlgrens Superorder Corniflorae, or Asteriflorae (according to rbcL sequencing); Asterales; formerly Cornales. Cronquists Subclass Rosidae; Celastrales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Asterid; Euasterid II; Asterales. Species 12. Genera 1; only genus, Phelline.
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).