| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Vochysiaceae A. St-Hil.

Including Hirtellaceae Horan. (p.p.).

Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs, or lianas, or herbs (rarely); resinous. Plants green and photosynthesizing. Self supporting, or climbing. Leaves persistent; opposite, or whorled, or alternate (rarely); leathery; simple. Lamina entire. Leaves stipulate, or exstipulate. Stipules when present, small; sometimes represented by glands.

Leaf anatomy. The leaf lamina dorsiventral (usually), or bifacial. Mucilaginous epidermis present (often), or absent. Stomata present; mainly confined to one surface (abaxial); anomocytic, or paracytic. Hairs present; exclusively eglandular; always unicellular (but sometimes branched or tufted). Unicellular hairs branched, or simple. Complex hairs present, or absent; when present, sometimes stellate. Lamina with secretory cavities, or without secretory cavities. Secretory cavities when present, containing oil. The mesophyll containing mucilage cells (e.g., in Qualea?), or not containing mucilage cells; containing crystals. The crystals druses, or solitary-prismatic.

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Young stems with solid internodes. Pith homogeneous, or heterogeneous (often with groups of sclerosed cells). Secretory cavities and cells present, or absent; when present, with mucilage. Cork cambium present; initially deep-seated, or initially superficial. Nodes unilacunar, or tri-lacunar. Primary vascular tissues collateral, or bicollateral. Internal phloem present (often, as strands or a continuous ring in the outer part of the pith), or absent. Cortical bundles absent. Medullary bundles absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous. The anomalous secondary thickening when occurring, from a single cambial ring.

The wood diffuse porous. The vessels medium to large; solitary, radially paired, and in radial multiples. The vessel end-walls slightly oblique, or horizontal; simple. The vessels with vestured pits, or without vestured pits; without spiral thickening. The axial xylem with fibre tracheids, or without fibre tracheids; with libriform fibres; including septate fibres (rarely), or without septate fibres. The fibres without spiral thickening. The parenchyma predominantly paratracheal (aliform and confluent). ‘Included’ phloem present (commonly), or absent. The wood not storied. Tyloses present, or absent.

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

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in panicles. The ultimate inflorescence units cymose. Inflorescences usually compound racemes (panicles) of cincinni. Flowers bi- bracteolate; very irregular; obliquely zygomorphic. The floral irregularity involving the perianth and involving the androecium. Flowers cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium present to absent (the flowers hypogynous, somewhat perigynous, or epigynous). Hypogynous disk absent.

Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla (usually), or sepaline (the corolla sometimes missing); (5–)6–8(–10); 1 whorled, or 2 whorled; isomerous, or anisomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; gamosepalous (connate basally). Calyx lobes markedly longer than the tube. Calyx irregular, the posterior lobe commonly larger; basally spurred (the posterior member often gibbous or spurred ar the base), or neither appendaged nor spurred; persistent; imbricate; with the median member posterior. Corolla when present (i.e. usually), 1–3, or 5 (occasionally); 1 whorled; polypetalous; imbricate, or contorted; more or less unequal but not bilabiate.

Androecium 1–5(–7). Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another, or coherent (by connate filaments); when cohering, 2 adelphous. Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes usually 2–4. Stamens 1(–4) (with a single fertile member, antepetalous across the flower from the spurred sepal); reduced in number relative to the adjacent perianth. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; sometimes with an expanded connective. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.

Gynoecium 1 carpelled (sometimes, ostensibly), or 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth to isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 1 celled, or 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous (but sometimes pseudomonomerous); of one carpel (ostensibly), or eu-syncarpous; superior, or inferior (when pseudomonomerous). Ovary 1 locular (when pseudomonomerous), or 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical, or lateral. Stigmas 1; small. Placentation when ovary inferior and pseudomonomerous, lateral to apical; when ovary superior and plurilocular, axile. Ovules in the single cavity 2; 1–50 per locule (to ‘many’); pendulous; epitropous (when axile); with ventral raphe; hemianatropous, or anatropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Outer integument contributing to the micropyle.

Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent, or indehiscent; a capsule, or a samara (then winged by the persistent sepals). Capsules when capsular, loculicidal. Seeds endospermic (rarely), or non-endospermic (usually); conspicuously hairy, or not conspicuously hairy; winged (often), or wingless. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2. Embryo straight (longitudinal to the seed).

Physiology, phytochemistry. Aluminium accumulation demonstrated (how consistently?).

Geography, cytology. Paleotropical and Neotropical. Tropical. West tropical Africa (the monotypic Erysmadelphus and Korupodendron only), mostly Central and tropical South America, West Indies. N = 11.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Rutiflorae; Polygalales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Polygalales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; malvid. APG IV Order Myrtales.

Species about 200. Genera 7, or 8; Callisthene, Erisma, Erismadelphus, Korupodendron, Qualea, Salvertia, Vochysia.

Illustrations. • Callisthene major: Martius, Nova Gen. et Spec. Pl. Brasiliensium (1824). • Erisma calcaratum, as E. violacea: Martius, Nova Gen. et Spec. Pl. Brasiliensium (1824). • Qualea multiflora: Martius, Nova Gen. et Spec. Pl. Brasiliensium (1824). • Vochysia calophylla, V. oppugnata and V. tucanorum: Nat. Pflanzenfam. III (1896). • Voychysia grandis: Martius, Nova Gen. et Spec. Pl. Brasiliensium (1824). • Salvertia convallariodora: Nat. Pflanzenfam. III (1896). • Salvertia convallariodora: Martius, Nova Gen. et Spec. Pl. Brasiliensium (1824). • Floral diagrams of Vochysia, Qualea and Salvertia: Nat. Pflanzenfam. III (1896). • Salvertia convallariodora: Lindley.

We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, genera included in each family, and classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo; Cronquist; APG). See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.

Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 8th June 2026. delta-intkey.com’.

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