Trees to c. 30 m tall, often fluted and buttressed. Indumentum of simple hairs. Leaves pinnate, the leaflets subopposite to alternate, the most apical on one side appearing ter-minal and usually largest; secondary venation reticulate, conspicuous when dried; petio-lules pulvinate at base; domatia absent. Inflorescences spikes, racemes or more rarely basally branched panicles with spicate or racemose branches, borne on twigs, branches or bole. Flowers unisexual (tree dioecious) and bisexual, the latter larger than male ones. Calyx deeply 5-lobed, the lobes imbricate. Petals 5, free from each other but united with staminal tube in proximal third to half, imbricate. Staminal tube globose to cyathiform, margin ± undulate; anthers (8–) 10 in one whorl inside the throat of the tube, their tips not or slightly exserted, without appendages. Disk absent. Ovary 3–5-locular, each lo-cule with one ovule; style long and broad-columnar, ± slightly expanded at the truncate stylehead, its flanks ribbed with the impressions of the surrounding anthers, pistillode more slender, ovules smaller. Fruit a 1–5-seeded berry with soft pericarp. Seed arillate (L. breviracemosum possibly exarillate), the aril thick, fleshy, white, edible, completely enveloping seed; embryo with thick plano-convex, superposed free cotyledons, radicle included.
Home