Luvunga Wight & Arn.

Scientific Description

Family Rutaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Woody lianas, or shrubs; evergreen; bearing essential oils. Plants spiny. The spines axial. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves small to large; alternate; spiral; leathery; petiolate; non-sheathing; gland-dotted; aromatic; simple, or compound (possibly (unifoliolate)); unifoliolate. Leaflets 1; 2–10 cm long (in W.A. species); not stipellate; ovate, or oblong, or obovate, or elliptic. Leaf blades dorsiventral; pinnately veined, or one-veined. Leaves without stipules, or with stipules. Stipules when present, intrapetiolar; represented by glands. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Hairs present, or absent (in WA species). Stem anatomy. Nodes unilacunar, or tri-lacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Entomophilous.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’ (in WA species). Inflorescence few-flowered. Flowers in fascicles, or in panicles. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose, or racemose. Inflorescences axillary. Flowers pedicellate; bracteate; small to large; fragrant; regular, or somewhat irregular. The floral asymmetry when noticeable, involving the perianth and involving the androecium (not K). Flowers (3–)4–5 merous; cyclic. Floral receptacle developing a gynophore. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present; intrastaminal; annular (sometimes one-sided), or of separate members. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 6–10; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx 3–5; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; lobed. Calyx lobes markedly shorter than the tube, or about the same length as the tube, or markedly longer than the tube. Calyx imbricate; cupuliform; regular; with the median member posterior. Corolla 3–5; 1 -whorled; polypetalous; imbricate; regular; white, or cream, or yellow (greenish). Androecium 6–10 (6 in the W.A. species L. monophylla (Paramignya trimera)). Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal, or markedly unequal; free of one another; 1 -whorled, or 2 -whorled. Stamens 6–10; diplostemonous; alternisepalous. Filaments glabrous, or hairy. Anthers dorsifixed, or basifixed (? more or less); versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse, or latrorse; tetrasporangiate. Gynoecium 2–5 carpelled. The pistil 2–5 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; (2–)3–5 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; free; apical; shorter than the ovary at anthesis, or about as long as the ovary at anthesis; deciduous; hairless. Stigmas 1; 2–5 - lobed; capitate; wet type, or dry type; papillate, or non-papillate; Group II type, or Group IV type. Placentation axile. Ovules 1–2 per locule; pendulous to ascending; epitropous; when two or more per cell, collateral, or superposed, or biseriate; arillate, or non-arillate; anatropous, or hemianatropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit fleshy, or non-fleshy; green, or yellow, or red; indehiscent; a berry; 1–4 seeded. Seeds endospermic, or non-endospermic. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2. Embryo chlorophyllous, or achlorophyllous; straight, or curved, or bent. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar, or cryptocotylar.

Physiology, biochemistry. Aluminium accumulation not found. Photosynthetic pathway: C₃.

Geography, cytology, number of species. Native of Australia. Not endemic to Australia. Australian states and territories: Western Australia, or Northern Territory. Northern Botanical Province. A genus of 12 species; 1 species in Western Australia.