Perrottetia Kunth

Shrubs or small trees. Branchlets smooth, usually zigzag. Leaves alternate, sometimes spiral (extra-Mal.), midrib prominent, sometimes with domatia in the axils of midrib and nerves. Stipules small, caducous. Inflorescences cymose, axillary in small divaricate thyrses generally shorter than the leaves. Flowers bisexual, rarely unisexual. Calyx lobes 5 or 4, very rarely 6-8, short, erect, triangular, valvate or with slightly imbricate margins, very rarely distinctly imbricate. Floral envelopes persistent. Petals 5 or 4, erect, similar to the calyx lobes in shape and equal in size or somewhat larger, but not in colour, sometimes ciliate, more or less distinctly keeled, valvate or slightly overlapping. Disk flat, cup-or ring-shaped, entire or fine-undulate. Stamens 5 or 4, very rarely 6-8, inserted on the margin of the disk; filaments subulate; anthers subglobose or ovoid, lengthwise dehiscent, ± introrse. Ovary semi-immersed in the disk, mostly 2-celled, or seemingly 4-celled at the base (cf LOES. E. & P. Nat. Pfl. Fam. ed. 2 20b 1942 191 ). Ovules 2 in each cell, basally attached, erect. Berry globose, 2-4-seeded. Seeds erect, subglobose, thin arillate; testa thick, muricate-foveolate, or tuberculate, crustaceous, fleshy outside; endosperm thin; embryo small.

In Malaysia chiefly in primary and secondary rain-forest and thickets, from the foothills through the montane zone up to 2640 m, sometimes also in the lowland, not found in East Java and the Lesser Sunda Is. and obviously bound to an everwet climate.