Family Boerlagellaceae

Boerlagellaceae H.J. Lam

~ Sapotaceae (unconvincingly)

Habit and leaf form. Trees. Leaves large; alternate; simple. Lamina entire; ovate. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire.

Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite, or monoecious, or dioecious, or polygamomonoecious (?).

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes. The ultimate inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences axillary. Flowers one to two bracteolate.

Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or sepaline (?). Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; much imbricate. Corolla unknown.

Gynoecium 5 carpelled. The pistil 5 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious, or synstylovarious, or eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 5 locular. Ovules (or at least, the seeds) non-arillate.

Fruit fleshy; dehiscent, or indehiscent (?); a capsule (tardily dehiscent), or a berry (?); 1(–10) seeded (?). Seeds non-endospermic; large. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2 (fleshy, contorted).

Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. Western Malaysia.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae (two poorly known genera, whose affinities are uncertain); Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Primuliflorae; Ebenales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Ebenales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Asterid; unassigned to Euasterid I or Euasterid II. APG 3 (2009) Order: Ericales (?).

Species 2. Genera 2; only genera, Boerlagella, Dubardella.

Inseparable in terms of this description from Rosaceae and Simaroubaceae. Gunn et al. (1992) refer it tentatively to Sapotaceae, from which it seems to differ in the racemose inflorescence and (?)lack of latex.

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