| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Barbeuiaceae (Baill.) Nak.

~ Phytolaccaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Large, woody lianas (the whole plants blackening on drying). Climbing. Leaves alternate; petiolate; non-sheathing; simple; pulvinate (articulated at the base). Lamina entire; ovate; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire.

Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; anomocytic.

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Nodes unilacunar (with 1 trace). Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening anomalous (in the form of successive rings of vascular bundles in the inner pericycle). The anomalous secondary thickening via concentric cambia.

‘Included’ phloem present.

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

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes. The ultimate inflorescence units racemose. Inflorescences axillary; short, rigid racemes, the pedicels long. Flowers bracteate (the bracts subulate); regular; cyclic; pentacyclic, or polycyclic. Free hypanthium absent.

Perianth sepaline; 5; 1 whorled. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous (the sepals orbicular, concave); regular; persistent (spreading in fruit); non-accrescent; imbricate.

Androecium 30–100 (‘many’). Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another; 2–4 whorled (?—in several series). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 30–100 (‘many’); polystemonous; filantherous (the filaments short, inserted on an annular disk). Anthers sagittate; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate, or 4 aperturate, or 6 aperturate; colporate, or foraminate, or rugate.

Gynoecium 2 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 2 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious; superior. Ovary 2 locular; sessile. Gynoecium non-stylate to stylate. Styles if detectable, 1; apical. Stigmas 2 (linear oblong, thick, erect-spreading, very shortly connate at the base). Placentation basal. Ovules 1 per locule; funicled; ascending; arillate; campylotropous.

Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent (?); a capsule (hard, woody, bilocular); 1–2 seeded (the seeds partially enclosed by fleshy arils). Seeds endospermic. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2 (oblong, unequal). Embryo curved.

Physiology, phytochemistry. Betalains absent.

Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. Madagascar.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Caryophylliflorae; Caryophyllales. Cronquist’s Subclass Caryophyllidae; Caryophyllales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Caryophyllanae. APG IV Order Caryophyllales.

Species 1 (Barbeuia madagascariensis). Genera 1; only genus, Barbeuia.

Illustrations. • Barbeuia madagascariensis (Hutchinson). • Barbeuia madagascariensis: Baiilon, Hist. des Plantes 4 (1873).

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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