Ricinodendron
Description:
Dioecious pachycaul trees with easily detached stellate indumentum. Leaves alternate, long-petiolate, palmatipartite to palmatisect; petioles sometimes glandular at apex; leaf segments sometimes pseudopetiolulate, glandular-denticulate, penninerved; stipules persistent, large, foliaceous, sessile, palmatifid, glandular-dentate. Inflorescences terminal or subterminal, paniculate, male larger than female; bracts linear, setaceous. Male flowers shortly pedicellate; buds globose; calyx lobes 4 or 5, imbricate; petals 5, imbricate, laterally coherent; disc glands 4-6, free, extrastaminal, entire, fleshy; stamens 6-14, filaments united at base, anthers dorsifixed, introrse, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillode absent. Female flowers pedicellate; calyx lobes 5, imbricate; petals +/- as in male flowers; hypogynous disc crenulate; ovary 2- or 3-lobed, usually wider than long; pericarp coriaceous; mesocarp fleshy; endocarps 2(3), rarely 1 by abortion, distinct, each subglobose, 1-locular, 1-seeded, thinly woody, smooth. Seeds ecarunculate, subglobose; endosperm fleshy; cotyledons broad, flat, palminerved.
Distribution:
Monotypic trop. African genus: Ricinodendron heudelotii (Baill.) Pierre ex Heckel; sthn trop. Afr.: Angola, Mozambique. (See also Schinziophyton ).
Source:
SSTA