Hernandia

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Hernandia

Description

Trees or shrubs. All parts of inflorescence finely pubescent, rarely glabrous. Leaves simple, undivided (seldom 3-5-lobed), peltate (H. nymphaeifolia in Malesia) or not, venation palmate or with 3-7 pairs of lateral veins, arching towards the apex. Inflorescence usually at and towards the tips of branchlets, the peduncles distinct (rarely short), the ultimate partial inflorescences comprising of modified cincinni and these usually subtended by an involucre of 4 bracts comprising 3 flowers: 2 lateral (rarely 1) pedicelled male flowers, and 1 central subsessile female flower (rarely 1 bisexual flower). Seeds with a hard, sometimes spongy testa; cotyledons free or (in Malesia) fused, ruminate.

Distribution

Asia-Tropical, Pantropical present
Pantropical genus of 24 species (Kubitzki 1969); in Malesia 3 species.

Citation

Kubitzki 1969 – In: Bot. Jahrb.: 122
Kubitzki 1970 – In: Fl. Camb., Laos & Vietnam: 17
Kubitzki 1993 – In: Kubitzki et al., The families and genera of vascular plants 2, X: 337.