Lovoa Harms

Large trees. Leaves paripinnate. Flowers 4-merous, unisexual (plants monoecious) in large panicles. Calyx lobed almost to the base; lobes 2 + 2, imbricate. Petals 4, free, imbricate. Staminal tube cup-shaped or shortly cylindrical, the margin entire or with paired deltate-acuminate appendages alternating with the 8 anthers. Disk broadly cushion-shaped, enveloping the base of the ovary or pistillode, but free from the staminal tube. Ovary 4-locular, each locule with 4–6(–8) ovules; style-head discoid or capitate, obscurely 4-lobed. Fruit a pendulous, elongate, tetragonal or ellipsoid, thinly woody, septifragal capsule, dehiscing from the apex or from the apex and base simultaneously, the valves thinly woody; columella softly woody, extending to the apex of the capsule, 4-ridged, each ridge shallowly indented with the imprints of 1–2 seeds. Seeds ± 2 per locule, attached to the distal part of the columella by the wing-end, leaving inconspicuous scars on falling, the body of the seed hanging towards the apex of the capsule.