Vavaea Benth.

Scientific Description

Family Meliaceae.

Family Meliaceae, Subfamily Melioideae, Tribe Vavaeeae.

Habit and leaf form. Trees. ‘Normal’ plants. Leaves cauline. To 4–30 m high. Mesophytic. Leaves medium-sized, or large; alternate; spiral; petiolate; with ‘normal’ orientation; simple. Leaf blades dorsiventral; entire; flat; obovate, or elliptic, or orbicular (rarely); pinnately veined; cross-venulate (sometimes conspicuously); cuneate at the base, or attenuate at the base, or cordate (or acute). Leaf blade margins entire; flat. Leaf anatomy. Hairs present, or absent (and hairs along the leaf veins only, or densely hispid).

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite (or rarely polygamous). Unisexual flowers absent, or present (rarely). Plants hermaphrodite, or polygamomonoecious (rarely). Plants not viviparous; homostylous. Floral nectaries present, or absent. Nectar secretion from the disk (when present).

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’. Inflorescence many-flowered. Flowers in panicles, or in cymes (less frequently). Inflorescences compound. The terminal inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences axillary (or extra axillary). Flowers pedicellate; small, or medium-sized, or large; fragrant; regular; (3–)4–6(–7) merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 6–14; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx present; 4–5(–7); 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; lobed; lobulate. Calyx lobes markedly longer than the tube. Calyx open in bud, or imbricate (rarely); exceeded by the corolla; regular. Corolla present; (3–)4–6; 1 -whorled; polypetalous; imbricate, or contorted (rarely); regular. Corolla members entire. Androecial members definite in number. Androecium 7–13. Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal; coherent (filaments fused in the lower half or beyond into a cyathiform tube); 1 - adelphous; 1 -whorled. Stamens 9–23; all more or less similar in shape; diplostemonous, or triplostemonous. Filaments hairy, or glabrous. Anthers all alike. Gynoecium 2–6 carpelled. The pistil 2–6 celled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth, or isomerous with the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 2–6 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 1; 1 - lobed; capitate (or discoid). Placentation axile. Ovules (1–)4–10 per locule.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit dehiscent; a berry. Dispersal unit the seed. Seeds 1–3(–7) per locule. Seeds thinly endospermic; not compressed (ovoid or plano-convex). Cotyledons 2. Seedling. Germination cryptocotylar (V. amicorum, Pennington & Styles (1975)).

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Not endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, or unknown. Northern Botanical Province. A genus of 4 species; 1 species in Western Australia; V. amicorum Benth.; 0 endemic to Western Australia.