Picrodendraceae

Shrubby-spurge Tetracoccus dioicus, copyright Stan Shebs.

Belongs within: Malpighiales.

The Picrodendraceae are a pantropical group of trees and shrubs bearing characteristic spiny pollen.

Characters (from Flora of Victoria): Trees or shrubs, lacking latex, monoecious or dioecious. Leaves usually alternate (rarely opposite or whorled), simple to palmate, petiolate; stipules present or absent. Inflorescences axillary, cymose, racemose, spicate or paniculate, bracteate. Flowers regular, unisexual, pedicellate; sepals 3–8, free; petals absent. Male flowers with 3–12 usually free sepals and 3–30 stamens, their filaments free or connate. Female flowers with as many sepals as males, ovary superior, 2–5- (usually 3-) locular, ovules 2 per locule, nectary disc often present below ovary, annular or lobed; styles undivided or bifid, solitary or 1 per locule. Fruit capsular, rarely a drupe. Seeds 1 or 2 per locule, often carunculate.

<==Picrodendraceae [Oldfieldioideae]
    |  i. s.: Hymenocardia T00
    |         Picrodendron T00
    |         Oldfieldia YY22
    |         Malvacipollis diversus XR12
    |         Piranhea GA97
    |--Podocalyx loranthoides XR12
    `--+--+--Androstachys XR12
       |  `--Tetracoccus XR12
       |       |--T. dioicus H93
       |       |--T. hallii H93
       |       `--T. ilicifolius H93
       `--+--Petalostigma XR12
          |    |--P. pubescens LK14
          |    |--P. quadriloculare LK14
          |    `--P. triloculare H90
          `--+--Dissiliaria XR12
             `--+--Austrobuxus swainii XR12, H90
                `--+--Stachystemon DL07
                   `--Micrantheum XR12
                        |--M. ericoides H90
                        `--M. hexandrum H90

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[DL07] Davis, C. C., M. Latvis, D. L. Nickrent, K. J. Wurdack & D. A. Baum. 2007. Floral gigantism in Rafflesiaceae. Science 315: 1812.

[GA97] Gillespie, L. J., & W. S. Armbruster. 1997. A contribution to the Guianan flora: Dalechampia, Haematostemon, Omphalea, Pera, Plukenetia, and Tragia (Euphorbiaceae) with notes on subfamily Acalyphoideae. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 86: 1–48.

[H90] Harden, G. J. (ed.) 1990. Flora of New South Wales vol. 1. New South Wales University Press.

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[T00] Thorne, R. F. 2000. The classification and geography of the flowering plants: dicotyledons of the class Angiospermae (subclasses Magnoliidae, Ranunculidae, Caryophyllidae, Dilleniidae, Rosidae, Asteridae, and Lamiidae). The Botanical Review 66: 441–647.

[XR12] Xi, Z., B. R. Ruhfel, H. Schaefer, A. M. Amorim, M. Sugumaran, K. J. Wurdack, P. K. Endress, M. L. Matthews, P. F. Stevens, S. Mathews & C. C. Davis. 2012. Phylogenomics and a posteriori data partitioning resolve the Cretaceous angiosperm radiation Malpighiales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 109 (43): 17519–17524.

[YY22] Yampolsky, C., & H. Yampolsky. 1922. Distribution of sex forms in the phanerogamic flora. Bibliotheca Genetica 3: 1–62.