Nephelium L.

Medium-sized to tall trees or rarely shrubs, probably dioecious, sometimes monoecious, Indumentum of solitary simple hairs, glandular scales absent. Leaves spirally arranged, paripinnate, (1-foliolate or) l-5(-18)-jugate, without pseudo-stipules; neither petiole nor rachis winged. Leaflets alternate to more rarely opposite, beneath mostly distinctly glaucous, finely papillate, domatia often present, margin entire or rarely repand, nervation open (except in N. subfalcatum). Inflorescences in some species all axillary, in most at least partly pseudoterminal, in some truly terminal, in N. cuspidatum also rami-and Cauliflorous. Flowers actinomorphic. Sepals (4 or) 5 (or 6), free to more than halfway up connate, valvate or sometimes (when the sepals are nearly free) slightly imbricate, all equal, not petaloid, entire, outside and inside hairy, outside more sparsely and with shorter hairs than inside, not ciliate, without glands. Petals shorter than the calyx, 5 (or 6), clawed, well developed, with a bilobed scale without appendages, hairy on both sides, entire, or 1-4 reduced, or often none. Disc entire, often slightly lobed, without apperidage. Stamens 4-10, exserted in male flowers; filaments rather densely long-hairy at least in the basal part, anthers nearly always with at least a few hairs. Pistil densely hairy] ovary short-stalked, (1-or) 2(-4)-celled, mostly warty; style usually well developed; stigmas fairly long, spreading to finally recurved. Ovules 1 per cell, half enveloped by an outgrowth of the placenta. Fruits 1-, exceptionally 2-lobed; stipe short to inconspicuous; body ellipsoid to subglobular, the surface warty to spiny, exceptionally nearly smooth: pericarp thin-to thick-coriaceous or exceptionally corky to nearly woody, inside glabrous, apparently often at least in the apical part finally loculicidal, either rather irregular or with two about equal valves. Seeds: hilum nearly basal; micropylar wart apical or mostly subapical; sarcotesta covering the whole seed, with the exception of the micropylar region, or at least perforated in front of the micropyle, sometimes with a collarlike outgrowth around the hilum; endotesta tough or exceptionally rather hard.

Uses The sarcotesta of a few species is eaten, but only N. lappaceum (Rambutan) is commonly cultivated as a fruit tree. The timber is hardly of any importance.