Family Tepuianthaceae

Tepuianthaceae Maguire and Steyermark

~ Thymelaeaceae

Habit and leaf form. Trees and shrubs; resinous. Leaves alternate, or opposite; ‘herbaceous’ to leathery; petiolate; non-sheathing; gland-dotted; simple. Lamina entire; oblanceolate, or oblong, or obovate (or spathulate); pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate.

Stem anatomy. Vessel end-walls simple.

Reproductive type, pollination. Plants androdioecious.

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes. The ultimate inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary. Flowers small; regular; cyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present; extrastaminal; of separate members (these contiguous).

Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; imbricate. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous; imbricate; regular. Petals more or less clawed.

Androecium 5–15. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another; 1–3 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5–15; isomerous with the perianth, or diplostemonous, or triplostemonous; oppositisepalous; alternating with the corolla members, or both alternating with and opposite the corolla members. Anthers sagittate; tetrasporangiate. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.

Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious; superior. Ovary 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles free (short, bifid). Placentation axile. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; non-arillate; anatropous.

Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules loculicidal (bony). Fruit 3 seeded. Seeds endospermic. Embryo weakly differentiated. Cotyledons 2 (poorly differentiated).

Geography, cytology. Neotropical. Guayana Highlands.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli (?). Dahlgren’s Superorder Santaliflorae (?); Celastrales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae (?); Celastrales (?). APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; malvid; Order Malvales (as a synonym of Thymelaeaceae).

Species 5. Genera 1; Tepuianthus.

This description is very inadequate, and taxonomic assignment is uncertain.