| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Lacistemataceae Mart.

~ Flacourtiaceae.

Including Monandrodendraceae Barkley

Habit and leaf form. Small trees, or shrubs. Leaves alternate; distichous; simple. Lamina dissected (toothed), or entire. Leaves stipulate. Stipules caducous (small).

Leaf anatomy. The leaf lamina dorsiventral. Stomata present; mainly confined to one surface (abaxial); anomocytic. Hairs present (these always simple, characterized by elongated pits at their bases); eglandular; unicellular, or multicellular. Unicellular hairs simple. Multicellular hairs uniseriate; simple. The mesophyll containing crystals. The crystals druses.

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Primary vascular tissues in a cylinder, without separate bundles; collateral. Internal phloem absent. Cortical bundles absent. Medullary bundles absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Primary medullary rays narrow.

The vessels very to moderately small; in radial multiples (typically with the radial multiples of four or more cells arranged to form radial lines). The vessel end-walls scalariform (often with 20 or more bars). The vessels without spiral thickening. The axial xylem with libriform fibres; including septate fibres. The fibres without spiral thickening. The parenchyma apotracheal (diffuse); wood not storied.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite (mostly).

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in spikes, or in catkins. Inflorescences axillary; catkinlike — small, dense, cylindrical, fascicled axillary spikes or racemes. Flowers bracteate (the bracts small and inconspicuous (Lozania) or conspicuous and imbricate (Lacistema)); bi- bracteolate; very small, or minute. Floral receptacle markedly hollowed (expanded into a fleshy, concave disk).

Perianth sepaline, or absent; 0, or 4–6. Calyx when present, 4–6; polysepalous; members unequal.

Androecium 1. Androecial members free of the perianth. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 1. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; bilocular (the locules separate, sometimes stipitate). Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.

Gynoecium 2–3 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious; superior. Ovary 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1. Stigmas 2–3 (distinct). Placentation parietal. Ovules in the single cavity 2–6 (with 1–2 ovules on each placenta); pendulous; anatropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Endosperm formation nuclear.

Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules three valvular. Fruit 1 seeded. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2; flat (broad, foliar). Embryo straight.

Geography, cytology. Neotropical. Sub-tropical to tropical. Tropical America, West Indies.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Violiflorae; Violales (cf. Flacourtiaceae). Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Violales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; fabid. APG IV Order Malpighiales.

Species 27. Genera 2; Lacistema, Lozania.

Illustrations. • Lacistema pubescens: Martius, Nova Gen. et Spec. Pl. Brasiliensium (1824). • Lacistema grandifolium, L. intermedium (= ?), L. lucidum, L. aggregatum (as myricoides and recurvum) and L. pubescens: Fl. Brasiliensis 4 (1852–73). • Lacistema serrulatum: Lindley. • Lacistema robustum: Hutchinson.

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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