Napoleonaeaceae P. Beauv.
~ Lecythidaceae
Including Belvisieae (Belvisiaceae) R.Br.
Habit and leaf form. Glabrous trees, or shrubs. ‘Normal’ plants. Leaves alternate; simple. Lamina dissected, or entire; when dissected, obscurely toothed; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire, or serrate, or dentate.
General anatomy. Plants with silica bodies (?).
Leaf anatomy. Lamina without secretory cavities. The mesophyll without etherial oil cells; containing calcium oxalate crystals. The mesophyll crystals solitary-prismatic. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (Napoleona).
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities absent. Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Cortical bundles present (at least in Napoleonaea). Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent. Xylem without tracheids; without fibre tracheids; with libriform fibres. Vessel end-walls simple. Primary medullary rays wide.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers usually solitary (axillary); medium-sized (often brightly coloured and showy).
Perianth sepaline (the corolla lacking, but the outer androecial members forming a pseudo-corolla); 3, or 5; 1 whorled. Calyx 3 (Crateranthus), or 5 (Napoleona); 1 whorled; polysepalous (when 3, Crateranthus), or gamosepalous (when 5, Napoleona); imbricate (when K3), or valvate (when K5).
Androecium 50–100 (‘many’). Androecial members maturing centrifugally; free of the perianth; coherent (the filaments connate below); in Napoleona 4 whorled (in ‘several series’ in Crateranthus). Androecium including staminodes (these spectacularly configured, the outermost whorl forming a pseudocorolla, the two inner series a corona), or exclusively of fertile stamens (Crateranthus). Staminodes 30–100 (? — many); external to the fertile stamens; petaloid and non-petaloid (those of the outermost series being joined to form a many-nerved and many-toothed, plicate pseudo-corolla, those of the second series more or less linear and free or only slightly united, those of the third series basally spurred and united to form a 20–40-lobed cup, with apically incurved lobes). Stamens 5–30 (? — to 20 in Napoleona, these and staminodes constituting the innermost of the four androecial whorls); polystemonous. Anthers extrorse. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate (to colporoidate); 3-celled.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled, or 5 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 3 celled, or 5 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious, or eu-syncarpous (?); inferior. Ovary 3 locular, or 5 locular. Epigynous disk present (intrastaminal, 10-glanded in Napoleona), or absent (? — no intrastaminal disk in Crateranthus). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical; short and apically expanded in Napoleona, long-filiform in Crateranthus. Stigmas wet type; non-papillate; Group IV type. Placentation axile. Ovules 2–50 per locule (to ‘many’); 2–4 seriate; anatropous.
Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a berry (large). Seeds non-endospermic. Cotyledons 2; large, thick.
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins absent. Saponins/sapogenins present.
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. West Africa. X = 16.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli, or Tenuinucelli (?). Dahlgren’s Superorder Theiflorae; Theales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Lecythidales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Asterid; unassigned to Euasterid I or Euasterid II; Ericales (as a synonym of Lecythidaceae). Species 18. Genera 2; Crateranthus, Napoleonaea.
This description referring mainly to Napoleona, and fairly inadequate. Morton et al. (1998) present this group as subfamily Napoleonaeoideae of Lecythidaceae, based on an assessment ‘using both molecular and morphological data’.
Illustrations. • Technical details (Napoleonaea).
Cite this publication as: ‘L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 14th December 2000. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/’. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000), and Watson and Dallwitz (1991) should also be cited (see References).
