Calophyllum L.

Scientific Description

Family Clusiaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs (rarely); with coloured juice, or non-laticiferous and without coloured juice; bearing essential oils, or without essential oils; resinous, or not resinous. Mesophytic. Leaves opposite; leathery; petiolate; gland-dotted, or not gland-dotted; without marked odour; simple; epulvinate. Leaf blades entire; with many slender closely packed prominent parallel lateral veins; cross-venulate. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Stem anatomy. Nodes unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite, or functionally male, or functionally female, or hermaphrodite, functionally male, and functionally female. Unisexual flowers present, or absent. Plants hermaphrodite, or dioecious, or polygamomonoecious.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences axillary. Flowers bracteolate, or ebracteolate; small to medium-sized; regular; cyclic, or partially acyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent, or present; of separate members. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or sequentially intergrading from sepals to petals, or of ‘tepals’ (the sepals and petals scarcely distinguishable); 4–12; 2 -whorled, or 3 -whorled; free. Calyx 2–6; imbricate; regular. Corolla 2–6; imbricate, or contorted; regular. Fertile stamens present, or absent (in female flowers). Androecium 20–100 (i.e. ‘many’). Androecial sequence determinable, or not determinable. Androecial members maturing centrifugally; free of the perianth; free of one another. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens, or including staminodes. Stamens 20–100 (‘many’); polystemonous. Filaments filiform. Anthers ovate to oblong in outline; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse, or extrorse; bisporangiate. Pollen shed in aggregates, or shed as single grains. Fertile gynoecium present, or absent (in male flowers). Gynoecium 1 carpelled, or 3–5 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled (through failure of the intruded placentae to reach the middle). Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary unilocular; 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; attenuate from the ovary; apical. Stigmas 1; peltate; wet type; non-papillate; Group IV type. Placentation parietal (on intruded placentae). Ovules in the single cavity 1; horizontal, or ascending; arillate, or non-arillate; anatropous, or hemianatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe. Seeds globular or ovoid; non-endospermic. Embryo rudimentary at the time of seed release to well differentiated. Cotyledons 2 (sometimes reduced ?). Embryo straight to curved.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Not endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia. Northern Botanical Province.