Brownea Jacq.

Trees or shrubs. Stipules often foliaceous, caducous. Leaves paripinnate, 2-15-ju-gate, new ones lax and often bright pink or purplish. Leaflets usually with a gland at the base of midrib beneath. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, mostly nodding capitate; bracts usually large and coloured, caducous; bracteoles coloured, conspicuous, connate into a bilobed tube enclosing the flower in bud, persistent beyond anthesis. Hypanthium tubular. Flowers coloured, showy, bisexual. Calyx lobes 4 (or 5), petaloid, more or less regular, imbricate. Petals 4 (or 5), clawed, slightly unequal, zygomorphic, imbricate. Stamens 10-15, connate at the base or into a short tube, rarely free. Ovary stipitate, the stipe adnate to hypanthium, many-ovuled; style filiform, stigma capitate. Pods oblong, compressed, coriaceous to woody, dehiscent, when dried often splitting into 2 twisted valves, 1-9-seeded. Seeds exalbuminous, non-arillate.