Tepuianthaceae Maguire and Steyermark
Habit and leaf form. Trees and shrubs; resinous. Leaves alternate, or opposite; ‘herbaceous’ to leathery; petiolate; non-sheathing; gland-dotted; simple. Lamina entire; oblanceolate, or oblong, or obovate (or spathulate); pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate.
Stem anatomy. Vessel end-walls simple.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants androdioecious.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary. Flowers small; regular; cyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present; extrastaminal; of separate members (these contiguous).
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; imbricate. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous; imbricate; regular. Petals more or less clawed.
Androecium 5–15. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another; 1–3 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5–15; isomerous with the perianth, or diplostemonous, or triplostemonous; oppositisepalous; alternating with the corolla members, or both alternating with and opposite the corolla members. Anthers sagittate; tetrasporangiate. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious; superior. Ovary 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles free (short, bifid). Placentation axile. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; non-arillate; anatropous.
Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules loculicidal (bony). Fruit 3 seeded. Seeds endospermic. Embryo weakly differentiated. Cotyledons 2 (poorly differentiated).
Geography, cytology. Neotropical. Guayana Highlands.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli (?). Dahlgren’s Superorder Santaliflorae (?); Celastrales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae (?); Celastrales (?). APG (1998) family of uncertain position at the highest group level. Species 5. Genera 1; Tepuianthus.
This description is very inadequate, and taxonomic assignment is very uncertain.
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).