特徵描述
作者
YANG, YUEN-PO and LU, SHENG-YOU
型態特徵
Trees or shrubs, rarely herbs. Leaves alternate, rarely subopposite or subverticillate, entire, serrate, or pinnatisect, estipulate. Inflorescences various (raceme in Helicia), axillary or terminal. Flowers generally hermaphroditic, actinomorphic; perianth tube cylindric, regular or slightly gibbous at base, with 4 recurved segments; stamens 4, inserted on the segments, filaments very short, anthers erect, 2-celled, introrse; glands or gland-scales 4 or rarely 0, free or connate, alternate with the stamens; ovary superior, 1-celled, often oblique, style terminal, filiform, the tip thickened, stigma minute; ovules 1, 2 or many. Fruits various. Seeds exalbuminous; embryo straight, cotyledons compressed or fleshy, often unequal.
屬
About 60 genera with over 1,200 species mainly in tropics and subtropics, especially in the drier regions of the southern hemisphere; only one genus with three species in Taiwan.
