Schizomeria
Description
Small to large trees or occasionally shrubs.
Leaves simple, opposite and decussate, petiolate, the margin serrate or crenate to sub-entire.
Stipules interpetiolar, one pair per node, sometimes secretory and then the nodes and buds varnished, usually caducous.
Inflorescence a thyrse, paniculate or corymbose, either terminal, or false-terminal, the apical bud aborted, dormant or vegetative, or axillary and then often small and lax.
Flowers bisexual or sometimes male, petaliferous, 4-6-, mostly 5-merous (except for gynoecium);
Sepals 4-6, triangu-lar to ovate, thick or membranous, aestivation valvate.
Petals 4-6, alternating with the calyx lobes, membranous, the base elongated and narrow, the distal part laciniate;
Stamens twice as many as sepals;
Fruit a drupe, ellipsoid or globose-oblate, often somewhat irregular, usually with a small annular depression at base corresponding to hypanthium and margin of hypanthium forming a minutely protruding annular scar with remnants of the persistent calyx lobes at its rim;
Seeds 1(-3).
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Bismarck Archipelago (Bismarck Archipelago present); Maluku (Maluku present); New Guinea present, Solomon Islands present, eastern Australia present
About 10 species in eastern Australia, Solomon Islands and Malesia: Moluccas, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago.
Ecology
In Malesia, S. serrata is widespread at low elevation, the remaining species occur in montane forest.
Morphology
2. Most species are quite variable, and vegetative characters are not always species specific, though the pattern of venation is often useful. Some unplaced material may represent additional taxa.
3. The flowers are greenish white to cream or somewhat brownish in species with dense indumentum. The disc lobes are yellow or green, and clearly visible in those species with rather dish-shaped flowers, while the anthers are often purple-black or brown, contrasting with the cream filaments and perianth. The fruits are usually ivory white or fawn at maturity, and brownish when immature, with a smooth or often warty surface. The rather granular-fibrous flesh usually adheres quite strongly to the endocarp.
4. A red exudate is commonly reported from close to the cambium.
1 The combination of laciniate petals and drupaceous fruits is unique within Cunoniaceae. Schizomeria is closely related to Ceratopetalum, but readily distinguished from it in Malesia where the latter has trifoliolate leaves, and by the fruits. Vegetative material is occasionally confused with Pullea glabra.