Anthodon
Description
Lianas, occasionally trees, glabrous. Inflorescences axillary, cymose, 3-6-times branched, pedunculate. Flowers subtended by 2 or 3 minute bracts; sepals 5; petals 5, conspicuously serrate; disk subcamose, shortly cylindric with sinuate margin; stamens 3, erect, filaments short, broadened towards base, anthers broadly reniform, dehiscing by confluent, transverse, apical clefts; ovary depressed-trigonous, locules 3, ovules 8-14 per locule, style stout, stigmas 3, minute on a triangular stigmatic shield, sometimes somewhat emarginate. Fruit capsular, flattened; mericarps 3, connate along lower half, dehiscing by a median suture, adjacent halves coherent, pericarp coriaceous, flabellate-costate without; seeds affixed by a basal wing, ascending embryoniferous part apical, coriaceous, much shorter than the membranous wing.
Distribution
French Guiana present, Neotropics present
2 species in the Neotropics, 1 of which in French Guiana.
Wood
Growth rings present, due to a one or two cells wide parenchyma band with dark contents, and V-shaped zones, 2-4 cells wide, ofunlignified cells in the wide rays.
Vessels diffuse between the wide rays, solitary, 13(9-22) per sq. mm, round to oval, of two different sizes, narrow vessels 16-65 μm wide, the large ones 160-200 μm wide. Vessel-member length: 805(580-1000) μm. Perforations simple. Intervascular pits very scarce, 5 μm; because the vessels hardly ever border on rays, the ray-vessel pitting also scarce, of the same size as the intervascular pits. Thin tyloses occasionally present.
Rays uniseriate and 6-30-seriate, 4 per mm, of which one wide ray. The uniseriates composed of square and upright cells, occasionally also of procumbent cells, from 1 to 30 cells high; the multiseriates hete- rogeneous, with in the middle elongate procumbent cells, at the margins square cells, up to 450 μm wide and over 450 cells(= 6 mm) high. Numerous rhombic crystals present, particularly in the unlignified cells and in the marginal cells of the wide rays, but also in some uniseriates. Parenchyma vasicentric as a narrow ring, also diffuse, and as terminal parenchyma. Strands of 4-6 cells.
Ground tissue of fibre-tracheids and septate fibres. Fibre-tracheids lumen c. 10 μm, walls 2 μm, numerous small bordered pits on both radial and tangential walls. Septate fibres with a lumen of c. 13 μm, walls 1 μm. Pits simple, mainly on the radial walls. Often with dark brown contents, diffuse amongst the fibre-tracheids.Length of the fi- bre-tracheids 1380(1100-1650) μm. FN ratio: 1.70.
Vessels diffuse between the wide rays, solitary, 13(9-22) per sq. mm, round to oval, of two different sizes, narrow vessels 16-65 μm wide, the large ones 160-200 μm wide. Vessel-member length: 805(580-1000) μm. Perforations simple. Intervascular pits very scarce, 5 μm; because the vessels hardly ever border on rays, the ray-vessel pitting also scarce, of the same size as the intervascular pits. Thin tyloses occasionally present.
Rays uniseriate and 6-30-seriate, 4 per mm, of which one wide ray. The uniseriates composed of square and upright cells, occasionally also of procumbent cells, from 1 to 30 cells high; the multiseriates hete- rogeneous, with in the middle elongate procumbent cells, at the margins square cells, up to 450 μm wide and over 450 cells(= 6 mm) high. Numerous rhombic crystals present, particularly in the unlignified cells and in the marginal cells of the wide rays, but also in some uniseriates. Parenchyma vasicentric as a narrow ring, also diffuse, and as terminal parenchyma. Strands of 4-6 cells.
Ground tissue of fibre-tracheids and septate fibres. Fibre-tracheids lumen c. 10 μm, walls 2 μm, numerous small bordered pits on both radial and tangential walls. Septate fibres with a lumen of c. 13 μm, walls 1 μm. Pits simple, mainly on the radial walls. Often with dark brown contents, diffuse amongst the fibre-tracheids.Length of the fi- bre-tracheids 1380(1100-1650) μm. FN ratio: 1.70.