Sarcandra Gardner

Shrubs or shrublets with nodose jointed branchlets. Primary and secondary xylem without vessels. Leaves decussate or sometimes appearing subverticillate where nodes are congested, pinnately nerved, usually coarsely serrate, serrations thickened at apex; petiolar sheath short, with short setaceous stipules on its margin. Flowers essentially bisexual, in lax terminal spikes with c. 3 main branches, each with up to c. 12 flowers; bracts boat-shaped. Male part reduced to a club-shaped or ± discoid organ usually interpreted as a filament and connective of a single stamen bearing 2 locelli, adnate about ⅔ of the way up the abaxial side of the ovary and with a cushion-like fold below the point of attachment; locelli latrorse or introrse, opening lengthwise, usually separated but sometimes touching at their tips. Ovary ovoid, 1-locular; ovule pendulous, bitegminal, crassinucellate; stigma sessile depressed and subcapitate. Drupe nearly invariably red, 1-seeded, obovoid, bearing the scar of the fallen male part on its anterior face; pericarp succulent, the epidermis without stomata. Seed pendulous with membranous testa; innermost cell layer of outer integument developing into a lignified palisade of radially elongate cells with 1-several crystals, the cell cavity becoming filled with an internal reticulum of lignin.