Volume 2 > Part 4 > Year 1981 > Page 448–464 > Symplocaceae

Symplocos Jacq.

En. Pl. Carib.: 5. 1760; DC., Prod. 8: 246. 1844; Clarke in Hook.f., Fl. Br. Ind. 3: 572. 1882; Guill. in Fl. Gén. I.-C. 3: 991. 1933; Noot., Rev. Symploc.: 33. 1975 (Leiden Bot. Ser. 1. 1975).

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Small, evergreen (exceptionally deciduous) shrubs to (rarely) huge trees; growth continuous or interrupted; at least in young stages all parts of the plant can be hairy by simple hairs. Leaves spirally or distichously arranged, estipulate, simple, penninerved; midrib impressed in the upper surface except in Symplocos anomala and S. lucida, petiole always present, rarely very short. Inflorescence a spike, raceme or panicle, sometimes condensed to dense clusters, from the upper leaf axils or beneath them from the axils of the fallen leaves. Flowers supported by a bract and 2 bracteoles, actinomorphic, bisexual. Calyx 3–5-lobed, imbricate or valvate, persistent, sometimes splitting into 2 parts and seemingly 2-lobed. Corolla gamopetalous, but divided nearly to the base in subg. Hopea, the 5 lobes quincuncially imbricate. Stamens many, in subg. Symplocos connate in a long monadelphous tube, in subg. Hopea only connate at the base, monadelphous or pentadelphous; staminal tube always inserted on the base of the corolla; anthers globose, bilocular, introrse, dehiscing longitudinally. Intrastaminal disk glandular, sometimes inconspicuous. Pistil 1, the ovary inferior (to slightly semi-inferior), 2–5-celled, septation complete; style 1, stigma punctiform or peltate; ovules 2–4 in each cell. Fruit a drupe, crowned by the persistent calyx lobes, usually with thin mesocarp, from globose or ampulliform to cylindrical, frequently bluish when ripe; stone smooth or ribbed. Seeds straight or curbed, 1 in each developed cell; embryo straight or curved.

Two subgenera, in Thailand respectively with 1 (Symplocos henschelii, subg. Symplocos) and with 17 species (subg. Hopea).