Myristicaceae

views updated

Myristicaceae A family of plants whose bark produces a watery, blood-like exudate. The leaves are simple, alternate, and in flat sprays, without stipules. The flowers are unisexual, usually dioecious, tiny, and usually trimerous; the stamens are united as a column, the ovary is superior. The fruit is fleshy and dehiscent, with 1 large seed enveloped in an often divided red aril; the endosperm is ruminate. There are 19 genera, with about 400 species, occurring throughout the tropics but centred in Malesia, mostly in lowland rain forest.

More From encyclopedia.com