PENTAPHRAGMATACEAE
Morphological description
Fleshy herbs.
Leaves
Leaves simple, alternate, asymmetrical, dentate, exstipulate.
Inflorescence
Inflorescence scorpioid.
Flowers
Flowers 5-merous; ovary inferior, 2-locular, placenta axile. Flowers usually bisexual, actinomorphic.
Fruit
Fruit a many-seeded berry.
Seed
Seed.
Different from: Campanulaceae: leaves symmetrical, inflorescence never scorpioid, flowers zygomorphic. - Gesneriaceae: leaves usually opposite, ovary superior (in Malesia), placenta parietal.
Distribution: The only genus of the family extends from SE Asia to New Guinea, best represented in Borneo, especially in the undergrowth of rain forest.
Notes: Some species have ornamental potential. Pentaphragma is often placed in Campanulaceae.
Literature: H.K. Airy Shaw, Fl. Males. I, 4 (1954) 517-528; R. Kiew, Mal. Nat. J. 43 (1989) 1-12.
Spot characters (Van Balgooy): Pentaphragma 92.
Illustrations: Fig. 137. Pentaphragma horsfieldii (Miq.) A. Shaw (Pentaphragmataceae). Reproduced from M.R. Henderson, Malayan wild flowers, Dicotyledons (1949 / 51, repr. 1974) 256. With kind permission of the Malaysian Nature Society.
Image in PhytoImages for Pentaphragmataceae