THYMELAEACEAE  

Shrubs, erect or scandent. Leaves alternate, membranous or subcoriaceous. Flowers solitary or fascicled in leaf axils, sessile or shortly pedicelled. Calyx 5-lobed; tube cylindric, at length swollen below, not articulated. Petals united into a short, erect, entire or obscurely 5-lobed ring at base of calyx lobes. Stamens 10, in 2 whorls in throat of calyx and not exceeding corolla; anthers with wide connective. Disc of minute scales or shortly cup-shaped and membranous. Ovary shortly stalked, 1-locular, with 1 ovule; style slender; stigma cylindric or capitate. Fruit dry, enclosed in persistent, +/- fleshy base of calyx.

Shrubs, glabrous. Leaves alternate, subsessile, elliptic or lanceolate. Flowers pedicelled, in few-flowered, terminal umbels. Calyx 4- or 5-lobed; tube cylindric, ribbed; lobes ovate, spreading, shorter than tube. Petals 0. Stamens 8-10, in 2 whorls arising from upper portion of calyx tube; anthers subsessile, linear, slightly curved. Disc surrounding ovary cup-shaped, entire or irregularly lobed. Ovary shortly stipitate, 2(3)-locular, glabrous or hairy on upper part; style terete, as long as ovary; stigma capitate or +/- saucer-shaped. Fruit fleshy, +/- the size of a pea. Seeds with papery testa.

Shrubs or shrublets. Leaves decussate or alternate, sessile or subsessile, entire, amphistomatic or epistomatic. Flowers sessile or pedicelled, solitary and terminal or in terminal, indeterminate capitula, or bracteate or ebracteate umbels. Calyx: hypanthium circumscissile, portion above plane of circumscission cylindrical to cyathiform, rarely cyathiform with a sigmoid curve at base, scales present below stamen attachment, portion below plane of circumscission ovoid to obovoid. Sepals 4, almost equal to distinctly unequal, petaloid. Petals 0. Stamens 8 in 2 whorls of 4, outer whorl exserted, episepalous or arising from or near rim of hypanthium, inner whorl exserted or semi-exserted, arising from rim to thirdway down hypanthium; filaments variable in length; anthers basifixed, introrse, ellipsoid to oblate-spheroid. Scales 8, exserted or enclosed, in single row below antipetalous stamens. Disc 0. Ovary sessile, 1-locular, with single ovule; style arising laterally; stigma either penicillate or conical or capitate and papillate or capitate and elongate-papillate. Fruit an achene, enclosed in persistent base of hypanthium. x = 9.

Large shrubs or small trees. Leaves opposite, expanded, membranous. Flowers in heads or spikes; bracts 0. Calyx 4-lobed; tube cylindric; lobes ovate or lanceolate. Petals 4, bipartite, appearing as 8 linear or oblong lobes, almost as long as calyx lobes, membranous. Stamens 8, in two series; upper series in throat, the other slightly below; filaments very short; anthers linear. Ovary 1-locular, with a single ovule and with long, somewhat stiff hairs on upper part; style lateral, included; stigma simple or subglobose. Fruit dry, enclosed in persistent base of calyx tube. Seeds small.