Tontelea Miers

Lianas or slender shrubs or trees with the upper branches scandent, glabrous throughout or essentially so; milky latex often present. Leaves opposite or sub-opposite, rarely alternate, petiolate, the petiole canaliculate. Inflorescences axillary or arising from defoliate branchlets, pedunculate or not, thyrsoid-paniculate or pseudodichotomously branching. Flowers hermaphrodite, small, sessile or short-pedicellate, arranged in loose clusters of 2-5 near or at the apex of ultimate branchlets; sepals 5, narrowly imbricate, broader than long, obtuse or rounded at the apex, entire to fimbriate at the margins; petals 5, narrowly imbricate, usually rounded at the apex, entire to erosulous at the margins, submembranous to thin-carnose; disc continuous, short-cylindric, free or sometimes adnate to the ovary by inconspicuous, interstaminal septa, entire or undulate or crenulate at the margin, membranous to thin-carnose; stamens 3, rarely 4, erect to subspreading, the fila-ments ligulate, the anthers usually extrorsely nutant, broader than long, the thecae usually subglobose and laterally confluent, dehiscing by transversal, confluent, extrorse clefts; ovary depressed-conical or 3-gonous, the angles usually rounded, 3-celled, each cell usually 2-ovulate, the ovules collateral or superposed; style short, terete, carnose, the stigmas 3, obvious and divaricate, alternate with or opposite to the stamens and the cells of the ovary, entire or 2-lobed, sometimes obscure. Fruits drupaceous, often large, the pericarp coriaceous or woody, the dissepiments persistent or evanescent; seeds usually few, embedded in mucilaginous pulp, angu-late, wingless.