TORRICELLIACEAE
NB This family has been formed under APG IV out of three monogeneric families.
Morphological description
Small shrub or tree.
Leaves
Leaves simple, entire, or irregularly incised, alternate, petiolate. Stipules absent. Leaf blade pinnate or palmate (Torricellia)
Inflorescence
Inflorescence usually a terminal panicle.
Flowers
Flowers actinomorphic, unisexual. Sepals (3-) 5, basally fused; petals (3-) 5 fused (absent in female flowers of Torricellia); stamens 5, anthers dorsifixed; female flowers similar with 3 staminodes and an ovary with 3-4 styles with a broad stigma.
Fruits
Fruit a drupe, when ripe black or purplish, with a single seed: although tricarpellate and trilocular it contains only one fertile locule and two sterile ones. Seed pendulous from a thickened funicle.
Seeds
Seeds with ruminate endosperm.
Different from: Araliaceae have secretory channels in stems or leaves, different inflorescences and flowers.
Distribution: The family has three genera: Aralidium (South Indochina to West Malesia), Melanophylla (Madagascar) and Torricellia (East Himalaya to South China, Myanmar and Vietnam).
Notes: Only one species Aralidium pinnatifidum
Literature: W.R. Philipson, Fl. Males. I, 9 (1979) 1-15 (Aralidium).
Spot characters (Van Balgooy): Aralidium: Drying leaves turn black
Illustrations: W.R. Philipson, Fl. Males. I, 9 (1979) p.15, fig.4. (Aralidium).
No image in PhytoImages for Torrecelliaceae.
For images see Plants of the World Online