Cheiloclinium
Description
Lianas, shrubs or small trees. Secondary veins widely ascending,
tertiary veins usually parallel. Inflorescences axillary, thyrsoid, or several times dichotomously branched with minute bracts and bracteoles; pedicels short. Flowers small, in cymes at the end of ultimate branchlets; sepals 5, free, entire, erosulous or fimbriolate; petals 5, free, fleshy or slightly so, entire or erosulous; disk consisting of 3 (or 5 in C. anomalum) staminiferous pockets; stamens 3 (or 5), erect in the cavities between the disk and the ovary, filaments ligulate, anthers small, dehiscing by transverse, confluent clefts; ovary trigonous or pentagonous; locules 3 (or 5), ovules 2 or 4 per locule, collateral or superposed, stigmas adnate to the top of the ovary, their tips free, slightly projecting, entire or lobed, opposite the stamens. Fruits drupaceous, pericarp coriaceous; seeds embedded in mucilaginous pulp.
tertiary veins usually parallel. Inflorescences axillary, thyrsoid, or several times dichotomously branched with minute bracts and bracteoles; pedicels short. Flowers small, in cymes at the end of ultimate branchlets; sepals 5, free, entire, erosulous or fimbriolate; petals 5, free, fleshy or slightly so, entire or erosulous; disk consisting of 3 (or 5 in C. anomalum) staminiferous pockets; stamens 3 (or 5), erect in the cavities between the disk and the ovary, filaments ligulate, anthers small, dehiscing by transverse, confluent clefts; ovary trigonous or pentagonous; locules 3 (or 5), ovules 2 or 4 per locule, collateral or superposed, stigmas adnate to the top of the ovary, their tips free, slightly projecting, entire or lobed, opposite the stamens. Fruits drupaceous, pericarp coriaceous; seeds embedded in mucilaginous pulp.
Distribution
Guianas present, Neotropics present
11 species in the Neotropics, 5 of which occur in the Guianas.
Wood observation species
Wood
Growth rings, if present, faint.
Vessels diffuse, though sometimes with a tendency to radial arrangement due to the presence of bands with few vessels and more crowded rays, solitary and occasionally in radial multiples of 2-3, 8-30 per sq. mm, round to oval, diameter of two sizes (not inC. cognatum ), about 30 μm and 60-200 μm. Vessel-member length: 450-630 (270-700) μm. Perforations simple. Intervascular pits alternate, elongate, the slits often confluent, 3-5 μm. Vessel-ray pits as the intervascular pits.
Rays uniseriate and 2-3(4)-seriate, occasionally in woods with anomalous growth wider in the region of wedges of connective tissue, 15 per mm. Heterogeneous with numerous square and upright cells and rather few truly procumbent cells; height irregular, up to 32 cells (= 1300 μm).
Rhombic crystals often present.
Parenchyma paratracheal, scarce, restricted to a few vasicentric strands. Strands of 4-6 cells.
Ground tissue of fibre-tracheids and of septate or non-septate fibres. Fibre-tracheids lumen c. 3 μm, walls 4-5 μm, small bordered pits on both radial and tangential walls. Fibres mostly septate, lumen 10-15 μm, walls 2 μm. Pits simple, confined to radial walls. Distribution parenchyma-like, paratracheal aliform-confluent to banded, and as isolated patches. Length of the fibre-tracheids 650-1160 (480-1340) μm. FIV ratio: 1.28-1.62.
Included phloem present; showing on cross sections either as isolated strands in diffuse or more or less concentric arrangement, the strands circular to oval, 250-800 μm wide (C. cognatum , C. belizense ); or as strands associated with concentric bands of conjunctive tissue, the bands often interconnected by radial or diagonal extensions of con- nective tissue (in C. anomalum , C. hippocrateoides , C. serratum ); bands usually 300-500 μm wide. Nests of sclerenchymatic cells in the conjunctive tissue.
Vessels diffuse, though sometimes with a tendency to radial arrangement due to the presence of bands with few vessels and more crowded rays, solitary and occasionally in radial multiples of 2-3, 8-30 per sq. mm, round to oval, diameter of two sizes (not in
Rays uniseriate and 2-3(4)-seriate, occasionally in woods with anomalous growth wider in the region of wedges of connective tissue, 15 per mm. Heterogeneous with numerous square and upright cells and rather few truly procumbent cells; height irregular, up to 32 cells (= 1300 μm).
Rhombic crystals often present.
Parenchyma paratracheal, scarce, restricted to a few vasicentric strands. Strands of 4-6 cells.
Ground tissue of fibre-tracheids and of septate or non-septate fibres. Fibre-tracheids lumen c. 3 μm, walls 4-5 μm, small bordered pits on both radial and tangential walls. Fibres mostly septate, lumen 10-15 μm, walls 2 μm. Pits simple, confined to radial walls. Distribution parenchyma-like, paratracheal aliform-confluent to banded, and as isolated patches. Length of the fibre-tracheids 650-1160 (480-1340) μm. FIV ratio: 1.28-1.62.
Included phloem present; showing on cross sections either as isolated strands in diffuse or more or less concentric arrangement, the strands circular to oval, 250-800 μm wide (