Meiostemon

Deciduous scandent shrubs or more rarely small trees. Leaves opposite, elliptic to broadly elliptic, petiolate, lepidote, at first minutely pubescent, glabrescent. Inflorescences of axillary panicles. Flowers small, 4-merous, sessile. Calyx : tube shallowly campanulate, slightly oblique. Petals 4, arising near margin of disc. Stamens 4, 1-seriate, antepetalous, not exserted. Style scarcely exserted. Disc with pubescent, scarcely free margin. Ovary with 2 ovules. Fruit 4-winged. Seeds : cotyledons 2, unfolding spirally and arising above soil level (known only in M. tetrandrus ). Scales +/-40-80 mu in diam., circular in outline, slightly convexly scalloped at each marginal cell; cells delimited by 8-10 radial walls alone; cell walls clear; cells transparent.