Glyptopetalum Thwaites

Shrubs or small trees. Branchlets terete or 4-angled (G. quadrangulare), sometimes slightly compressed or flattened at the nodes. Stipules small, caducous. Leaves decussate or opposite, sometimes subopposite at the upper part of the young branchlets, entire or crenulate. Cymes simple to 2-3 times forked, axillary or extra-axillary, quite often also on the internodes, with a distinct peduncle and pedicels; pedicel of the lateral flowers usually shorter than that of the central ones, often with 2 small bracteoles just below the articulation. Flowers bisexual, 4-merous. Calyx lobes spreading, the inner pair larger than the outer one. Petals rather fleshy, usually smooth, sometimes with a small appendage or 2 depressions on the inner side. Disk fleshy, flat, 4-angular or slightly 4-lobed, or covering the ovary and confluent with it. Stamens 4, inserted on the disk or on the united body of disk and pistil; filaments very short, persistent, connective dilate; anthers divergent, dehiscent at the top or introrse (extra-Mal. sp.). Ovary immersed in the disk, 4-celled; style obscure; stigma obscure or obtuse. Ovule one in each cell, pendulous from the inner angle of the top, anatropous. Capsule loculicidal, when dehiscing the valves splitting from the central axis leaving a persistent columella, 4-1-celled, 4-or 3-1-seeded by abortion, globose or subglobose, if containing only 2 seeds transverse-oblong. Seeds with incomplete, fleshy aril covering the lower l/2 or 1/3, the raphe running down on one side and branched into 3 to 6 bands and turning at the morphological base of the seed, the bands ascending towards the micropylar end of the seed on the other side.

Forests from the lowland up to 1400 m. The species are, G. quadrangulare excepted, all rare and local in Malaysia and mostly known from a few specimens and of some either the fruits or the flowers are not or inadequately known, therefore specific distinction may change in future.