Memecylon
Source:
SSA
Synonym(s):
Eugenia Sond.: 523 (1862) in part.
Description:
Trees or shrubs, usually completely glabrous, young branches narrowly 4-winged, 4-gonous or terete. Leaves entire, longitudinally 1-3(-5)-nerved, shortly petiolate. Flowers 4-merous, small or minute, in fascicles or in cymes forming panicle-like or corymbose inflorescences; bracts minute. Receptacle broadly campanulate, hemispherical or cupular, limb +/- dilated, truncate, 4-toothed or -lobed. Petals broadly ovate, obovate, circular-subdeltate, obtuse or apiculate, whitish or bluish. Stamens 8, equal, sometimes 4 with abortive anthers; filaments filiform; anthers axe-shaped, with 2 anterior thecae dehiscing by 2 longitudinal slits and usually with a gland on the concave back. Ovary 1-locular, wholly adherent to receptacle, sunken or convex at apex; style filiform; ovules 2-12(-20), on a central placenta. Fruit an ovoid, globose or ellipsoid, 1(2)-seeded berry, crowned by persistent calyx. Seeds large; cotyledons crumpled or not so. x = 7 (12?) (polyploidy).
Distribution:
Species 150, Old World: Africa to Asia and Australia, +/- 50 in Africa; 3 in sthn Afr., KwaZulu-Natal to Eastern Cape border area.