Cyne
Description
Aerial stem-parasitic shrubs with epicortical runners bearing secondary haustoria.
Leaves opposite, usually darker and glossier above than below; venation pinnate.
Inflorescences in the leaf axils or depressions at the stem nodes, developing successively, sessile or almost so, a very contracted or capitate raceme of one or more decussate pairs of dichasia (triads) or rarely dyads, developing beneath the stem periderm which forms a blister-like calyptra which falls in one piece or ruptures as the flowers expand; triads and individual flowers sessile or with minute peduncles and pedicels, these sometimes developing only in fruit; bracts single under each flower and together forming an involucre under each triad.
Fruit ellipsoid, usually with a persistent nipple-like style base.
Distribution
from the Philippines to New Guinea present
Six species distributed in eastern Malesia from the Philippines to New Guinea.
Morphology
The basic inflorescence structure is a raceme of decussate triads, as in Decaisnina, but with a very contracted axis. The least specialized inflorescences are very short racemes with only one or two pairs of triads on very short peduncles, whilst the most extreme are sessile heads in depressions in the stem. There is no involucre of imbricate bracts subtending the entire inflorescence, as in some related genera, and the primary diagnostic character for the genus is the bubble-like or pellicle-like calyptra, developed from the stem periderm, which covers the young inflorescence. As the inflorescence expands the calyptra is displaced or irregularly split.
Open flowers of most species are unknown, although the available material suggests that floral characters are relatively uniform.
Open flowers of most species are unknown, although the available material suggests that floral characters are relatively uniform.