Blighia

Primary tabs

Blighia

Description

Trees or shrubs. Stipules wanting. Leaves alternate, paripinnate, rachis with a distal process (rudimentary leaflet); leaf rachis cylindrical or angled; petiolules short and slightly swollen; leaflets opposite, 1-5 pairs, the margins entire. Inflorescences axillary racemes or racemose thyrses with depauperate dichasia. Flowers actinomorphic, functionally unisexual (plants polygamous-dioecious); calyx of 5, free, valvate sepals; petals 5, connate along the margins to a petaloid appendage, forming a pouch; disc annular, 8-lobed; stamens 8-10; ovary 3(4)-carpellate, with a single ovule per carpel; style distal, elongate-conical. Fruit a 3(4)-locular, loculicidal, capsule. Seeds with a basal, enlarged aril.

Distribution

tropical Africa present
A tropical African genus of three species, one of which is cultivated for its edible arils and as an ornamental.