View source for Melianthaceae

                                             
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Melianthaceae (from the genus Melianthus, derived from the Greek meaning honey and flower). Melianthus Family. Shrubs or trees: leaves alternate, entire or pinnate: flowers bisexual, irregular, soon inverted; sepals 5, imbricated; petals 4-5; stamens 4-5, or 10, free or slightly connate at the base, alternating with the petals; disk present, extrastaminal, crescent-shaped, or annular with 10 projections; carpels 4-5; ovary 4-5-celled; ovules 1 to many in each cell; style 1; stigma 4-5-lobed: fruit a capsule; seeds albuminous, sometimes arillate.

All the 3 genera and 17 species are natives of Africa. The Melianthaceae were formerly united with the Sapindaceae, with which they agree in the extra-staminal disk, but they differ in the vertically bisymmetrical, not obliquely bisymmetrical, flowers, and more abundant endosperm.

In southern California, species of Melianthus are grown for ornament.

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