The Families of Flowering Plants

L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz


Siphonodontaceae Gagnep. & Tardieu

Alternatively Capusiaceae Gagnep.

~ Celastraceae

Habit and leaf form. Trees, or lianas. Self supporting, or climbing. Mesophytic. Leaves alternate; distichous; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined. Leaves exstipulate.

Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous (?). Xylem with libriform fibres.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite.

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers small; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present.

Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; regular. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous; regular.

Androecium 5. Androecial members free of the perianth (the filaments closely appressed to the disk, the anthers forming a five-rayed star at the top); free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous; alternating with the corolla members. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; porate.

Gynoecium (8–)10(–12) carpelled. Carpels increased in number relative to the perianth. The pistil (8–)10(–12) celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious, or eu-syncarpous; superior to partly inferior (embedded in the hemispherical disk). Ovary (8–)10(–12) locular. Locules secondarily divided by ‘false septa’; each divided horizontally into one-ovulate locelli (each with one septum, dividing it into two superposed locelli). Gynoecium non-stylate. Stigmas represented by 5 stigmatic lines and tufts. Placentation axile. Ovules 2 per locule (one in each locellus); pendulous and ascending (the upper ascending, the lower pendulous); and their locelli superposed.

Fruit (hard-) fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe. The drupes with separable pyrenes (these bony, about 20, radiating). Seeds endospermic (the endosperm bony).

Geography, cytology. Sub-tropical to tropical. Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Northeast Australia.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Santaliflorae; Celastrales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Celastrales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Rosid; Eurosid I; unassigned at ordinal level (as a synonym of Celastraceae). Species 5. Genera 1; only genus, Siphonodon.


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).

Index