Margaritaria L.f.

Scientific Description

Family Euphorbiaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs; deciduous, or evergreen (sometimes); laticiferous. Plants succulent, or non-succulent. Self supporting, or climbing (rarely). Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves small to large; alternate; distichous; leathery, or membranous (or chartaceous); shortly petiolate; non-sheathing; gland-dotted, or not gland-dotted; simple. Leaf blades entire; pinnately veined. Leaves with stipules. Stipules scaly, or leafy, or spiny, or represented by glands; sub- persistent, or caducous. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Urticating hairs present, or absent. Stem anatomy. Nodes tri-lacunar, or unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous; from a single cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male and functionally female. Unisexual flowers present. Plants dioecious. Male flowers without pistillodes. Entomophilous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’, or solitary (occasionally); in clusters at proximal axils of expanding leafy branches, or on short shoots. Inflorescences axillary. Flowers bracteate, or ebracteate; minute to small; regular. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present (usually), or absent (or reduced in a few taxa); annular. Perianth sepaline; 4; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx 4; 2 -whorled (members often unequal, outer pair usually narrower); polysepalous, or gamosepalous; imbricate; regular. Fertile stamens present, or absent (female flowers). Androecium 4. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another, or coherent (rarely basally connate). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4; isomerous with the perianth; erect in bud, or inflexed in bud. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; extrorse; bilocular to four locular; bisporangiate, or tetrasporangiate. Fertile gynoecium present, or absent (male flowers). Gynoecium 2–6 carpelled. The pistil 2–6 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious, or synstylovarious (depending on interpretation of partially connate styles); superior. Ovary plurilocular; 2–6 locular. Styles 2–6; free, or partially joined (basally connate); forked; apical. Stigmas 4–12; dry type; papillate, or non-papillate; Group II type. Placentation axile, or apical. Ovules 2 per locule; pendulous; epitropous; with ventral raphe, or with dorsal raphe; collateral; non-arillate; hemianatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit non-fleshy; irregularly dehiscent, or indehiscent; a capsule, or a drupe. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds non-arillate. Cotyledons 2. Embryo straight, or curved. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar, or cryptocotylar.

Physiology, biochemistry. Mustard-oils present, or absent.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Not endemic to Australia.