Pandaceae Engl. & Gilg

Dioecious trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, distichous, simple, entire, crenate or serrate, penninerved, stipulate, borne horizontally on shoots which subtend ‘axillary buds’ and thus resemble pinnate leaves; stipules usually persistent, the adaxial one arising below the abaxial. Flowers small, regular, unisexual, in axillary or supraaxillary fascicles, abbreviated racemes or cymes, or in terminal or cauliflorous racemiform thyrses. Calyx cupular, truncate or 5-lobed, the lobes imbricate or open. Petals 5, contorted, imbricate or valvate, flattened or galeate-cucullate. Disc small, rarely large, or absent. Stamens 5, 10 or 15, uniseriate or biseriate, sometimes unequal; anthers introrse, 2-thecous, opening lengthwise; staminodes sometimes present in ? flowers; pistillode of ? flowers linear-subulate, cylindric or narrowly conical, sometimes pentagonal at base. Ovary superior, 2–5-locular, with 1 (–2) apical pendulous orthotropous or anatropous ovules per locule, without obturator; styles 1–5, simple or bipartite. Fruit a drupe, sometimes flattened, more rarely a capsule; mesocarp fleshy; endocarp woody, bony or stony, thin to thick and massive, usually tubercled, muricate, pitted or ridged, sometimes dehiscent by valves. Seeds usually flattened-concave, more rarely ovoid, ecarunculate, with endosperm. Cotyledons broad, sometimes cordate