Family Griseliniaceae

Griseliniaceae J.R. Forst. & G. Forst. ex A. Cunn.

~ Cornaceae

Habit and leaf form. Glabrous trees, or shrubs, or lianas. Self supporting, or epiphytic, or climbing. Leaves alternate (the axillary buds sometimes becoming much displaced); spiral; leathery (glabrous); petiolate; sheathing to non-sheathing (subvaginate); not gland-dotted; simple. Lamina conspicuously asymmetric, or not conspicuously asymmetric. Leaves exstipulate (but the petole base sometimes prolonged upwards into a short, ligule-like process). Vegetative buds scaly.

Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; mainly confined to one surface (the lower); cyclocytic.

Adaxial hypodermis present. Lamina dorsiventral. The mesophyll with sclerencymatous idioblasts. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells.

Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities absent. Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Nodes tri-lacunar, or multilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Xylem with vessels. Vessel end-walls horizontal; scalariform. Wood parenchyma apotracheal.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Plants dioecious. Gynoecium of male flowers absent.

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in panicles; small; regular. Free hypanthium present (the petals ‘inserted on the calyx’).

Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla (male, female), or sepaline (female flowers sometimes apetalous); 5, or 10; 1 whorled, or 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx of both male and female flowers 5; 1 whorled; gamosepalous (minute in male flowers, with an ovoid tube in females); regular. Corolla in male flowers, and when present in females, 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous; (sub) imbricate; regular.

Androecium in male flowers, 5. Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous. Anthers dorsifixed; versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.

Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous (but pseudomonomerous); synstylovarious to eu-syncarpous; inferior. Ovary 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 3; free, or partially joined; short. Stigmas 3. Placentation apical. Ovules pendulous; anatropous.

Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a berry; 1 seeded (ovoid, unilocular). Seeds copiously endospermic. Embryo minute.

Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Iridoids detected (giselinoside); ‘Route I’ type (‘normal’). Proanthocyanidins absent. Ellagic acid absent.

Geography, cytology. Antarctic. Temperate. New Zealand, Chile, Southeast Brazil.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Araliiflorae (re-assigned from Corniflorae, as supported by rbcL sequence comparisons); Araliales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Cornales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Asteranae; campanulid; Order Apiales.

Species 6. Genera 1; only genus, Griselinia.

Dawson (1966), Tuatara 14, 121–129 (not seen); Philipson (1967).