| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Duckeodendraceae Kuhlmann

~ Solanaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Large trees; non-laticiferous, without coloured juice. Plants green and photosynthesizing. Leaves alternate; without marked odour; simple. Lamina entire. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire.

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Secretory cavities present. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, or anomalous.

The vessel end-walls slightly oblique; simple. The axial xylem with fibre tracheids.

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

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes. The ultimate inflorescence units cymose. Inflorescences terminal; few-flowered, terminal or subterminal cymes. Flowers regular; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Hypogynous disk present; intrastaminal.

Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; gamosepalous; terminally toothed. Calyx lobes markedly shorter than the tube. Calyx tubular; regular; persistent. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; gamopetalous; lobes imbricate; funnel-shaped (with a long tube, the lobes short); regular; green to white.

Androecium 5. Androecial members adnate (to the corolla); free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous; alternating with the corolla members; filantherous (exserted). Anthers dorsifixed to basifixed (medifixed, basally bilobed); oblong, dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse.

Gynoecium 2 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 2 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious to eu-syncarpous; superior (more or less immersed in the disk). Ovary 2 locular (but only one locule fertile). Gynoecium oblique; stylate. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 1–2; 2 lobed. Ovules 1 per locule; anatropous (?).

Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe (large, shining, red, the mesocarp fibrous, the bony endocarp bilocular, the fertile locule U-shaped, the sterile locule straight). The drupes with one stone. Fruit 1 seeded. Seeds scantily endospermic. Endosperm oily. Seeds U-shaped. Embryo curved (U-shaped).

Physiology, phytochemistry. Inulin not found.

Geography, cytology. Neotropical. Tropical. Brazil.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Gentianiflorae; Gentianales (cf. Apocynaceae). Cronquist’s Subclass Asteridae; Solanales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Asteranae; lamiid. APG IV Order Solanales (as a synonym of Solanaceae).

Species 1 (Duckeodendron cestroides). Genera 1; only genus, Duckeodendron.

General remarks. Not effectively distinguishable from Solanaceae in terms of this inadequate description.For wood details, see Record (1933), in Trop. Woods 33, 6–10.

Illustrations. • Duckeodendron cestroides: Archivos Jardim Botanico Rio de Janeiro 4 (1925).

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’.

Contents