Rhabdodendron
Content
Description
Shrubs or small trees. Leaves entire, alternate, gland-dotted, coriaceous, small peltate hairs on undersurface; stipules small, subulate or obscure. Inflorescences of supra-axillary racemose panicles or racemes; bracts and bracteoles small, reduced to scales. Flowers hermaphrodite; receptacle broad, slightly concave; calyx very short, lobes 5 or indistinct; petals 5, caducous, sepaloid, oblong or oblong-elliptic, apex rounded or minutely apiculate, minutely punctate, aestivation imbricate; disk absent; stamens numerous (about 45), filaments short, flattened, persisting after flowering and then recurved, anthers linear, erect, basifixed, caducous, 4-locular, dehiscing longitudinally; ovary sessile, globose, glabrous, 1-locular, inserted at base of concave receptacle, ovule 1, basally attached, campylotropous, style arising from base of ovary to one side of it, fairly thick, elongated, stigmatic surface on outermost side ascending from base or middle. Fruits small drupes, globose, terminating a short stipe in cup-shaped receptacle, exocarp thin, crustaceous when dry, endocarp slightly woody; seed 1, reniform-globose, exalbuminous, with thin testa; cotyledons thickly fleshy, radicle small and bent inward towards hilum.
Wood
Successive bundles of xylem and concentric included phloem present alternating with bands of conjunctive tissue (). Growth rings absent.
Vessels diffuse, mostly solitary, 3-11 (7) per mm², generally more abundant in the vicinity of the conjunctive tissue, circular to oval () and medium in size with tangential diameters ranging from 44-171 (107) μm wide. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits minute, with slit-like pit apertures, vestured, alternately arranged. Vessel-ray pits bordered, similar in size and arrangement to intervessel pits.
Rays of 2 sizes, 1-3-seriate and (less frequently) 4-7-seriate (), 6-13 per mm. Uniseriate rays homocellular composed of square to upright cells. Multiseriate rays heterogeneous composed predominantly of square and upright body cells and 1-3(-6) rows of upright marginal cells (). Multiseriate rays 28-184 (71) μm wide and 263- >3000 (1200) μm high, rarely composed. Amorphous contents present in most ray cells. Sheath cells occasionally present. Perforated ray cells rarely present. Rare prismatic crystals or druses present in the ray body cells ().
Parenchyma as conjunctive tissue forming strands of more than 10 cells; otherwise axial parenchyma sparsely diffuse and scanty paratracheal with axial strands of 2-3 cells.
Ground tissue of non-septate fibre-tracheids with thick walls and bordered pits on both radial and tangential walls.
Vessels diffuse, mostly solitary, 3-11 (7) per mm², generally more abundant in the vicinity of the conjunctive tissue, circular to oval () and medium in size with tangential diameters ranging from 44-171 (107) μm wide. Perforation plates simple. Intervessel pits minute, with slit-like pit apertures, vestured, alternately arranged. Vessel-ray pits bordered, similar in size and arrangement to intervessel pits.
Rays of 2 sizes, 1-3-seriate and (less frequently) 4-7-seriate (), 6-13 per mm. Uniseriate rays homocellular composed of square to upright cells. Multiseriate rays heterogeneous composed predominantly of square and upright body cells and 1-3(-6) rows of upright marginal cells (). Multiseriate rays 28-184 (71) μm wide and 263- >3000 (1200) μm high, rarely composed. Amorphous contents present in most ray cells. Sheath cells occasionally present. Perforated ray cells rarely present. Rare prismatic crystals or druses present in the ray body cells ().
Parenchyma as conjunctive tissue forming strands of more than 10 cells; otherwise axial parenchyma sparsely diffuse and scanty paratracheal with axial strands of 2-3 cells.
Ground tissue of non-septate fibre-tracheids with thick walls and bordered pits on both radial and tangential walls.