Alternatively Capusiaceae Gagnep.
~ Celastraceae
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or lianas. Self supporting, or climbing. Mesophytic. Leaves alternate; distichous; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined. Leaves exstipulate.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous (?). Xylem with libriform fibres.
Reproductive type, pollination. Hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers small; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; regular. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous; regular.
Androecium 5. Androecial members free of the perianth (the filaments closely appressed to the disk, the anthers forming a five-rayed star at the top); free of one another; 1 - whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 - aperturate; porate.
Gynoecium (8-)10(-12). Carpels increased in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious, or eu-syncarpous; superior to partly inferior (embedded in the hemispherical disk). Ovary (8-)10(-12) locular. Locules each divided horizontally into two superposed, one-ovulate locelli. Gynoecium non-stylate. Stigmas represented by 5 stigmatic lines and tufts. Placentation axile. Ovules 2 per locule (one in each locellus); pendulous and ascending (the upper ascending, the lower pendulous); and their locelli superposed.
Fruit (hard-) fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe (with about 20 radiating, bony pyrenes). Seeds endospermic (the endosperm bony).
Geography, cytology. Sub-tropical to tropical. Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Northeast Australia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren's Superorder Santaliflorae; Celastrales. Cronquist's Subclass Rosidae; Celastrales. Takhtajan's Subclass Rosidae; Celastranae; Celastrales. Species 5. Genera 1; only genus, Siphonodon.