Hedyosmum

Authority

Todzia, Carol A. 1988. Chloranthaceae: Hedyosmum. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 48: 1-138. (Published by NYBG Press)

Family

Chloranthaceae

Scientific Name

Hedyosmum

Type

Type species. Hedyosmum nutans Swartz. Named for the agreeable odor emanating from the entire plant.

Synonyms

Tafalla, Tafallaea Kuntze

Description

Genus Description - Monoecious or dioecious aromatic shrubs or trees, rarely herbs, often with prop roots; wood white, usually soft; stems with persistent leaf sheaths or with encircling leaf sheath scars; nodes swollen. Leaves opposite, simple, pinnately veined, fleshy to coriaceous when fresh; margins dentate with hydathodes at apices of teeth; petioles grooved above, with bases expanded and connate to form a sheath around stem; distal margin of leaf sheath with or without stipular appendages. In dioecious plants, staminate inflorescences axillary or terminal, composed of a solitary spike or with several spikes on a racemose or paniculate axis, subtended by a pair of leaf-like bracts. In monoecious plants, staminate inflorescences of solitary spikes originating on pistillate inflorescence axis or within a cymule among pistillate flowers. Staminate spikes with 60-300 flowers; staminate flowers consisting of a solitary, sessile, ebracteate stamen; stamens quadrangular to oblong, 4-locular, longitudinally dehiscent; anther connective extended with the apex flat, acute, or acuminate. Pistillate inflorescences axillary or terminal, solitary, thyrse-like, racemose, or paniculate, often fused above nodes with stem; subtended by leafy bracts. Pistillate flowers solitary on axis or more often clustered into cymules, consisting of an ellipsoidal or trigonous ovary, with perianth adnate to the ovary with three free or partially fused lobes at the apex of ovary, subtended by a floral bract; mature perianth tissue surrounding ovary often with a hole or pore on each ovary face; stigmas sessile on a very short style, papillose; floral bracts cucullate, chartaceous or fleshy, fully, partially or not enclosing flower. Fruit a drupe with the fleshy wall formed by the accrescent perianth, or multiple with floral bracts becoming fleshy, colored, and connate; seeds, surrounded by perianth tissue, embedded in the bract matrix. Seeds small, brown or black, ellipsoidal or trigonous, smooth or minutely papillate, x = 8.

Distribution

A predominantly montane neotropical genus of 40 species ranging from central Mexico through Central America south to central Bolivia, and east through the Guayana Highland. Also occurring in the West Indies and with one species in Southeast Asia.

Mexico North America| Central America| Colombia South America| Ecuador South America| Peru South America| Bolivia South America| Guyana South America| Venezuela South America| Suriname South America| French Guiana South America| West Indies| Asia|