THEACEAE 1. Subfam. THEOIDEAE
THEACEAE 山茶科 shan cha ke Min Tianlu (闵天禄 Ming Tien-lu)1; Bruce Bartholomew2 Shrubs or trees, evergreen or rarely deciduous, usually bisexual, rarely dioecious (Eurya) or androdioecious (Ternstroemia). Stipules absent. Leaves simple, alternate, petiolate or rarely sessile; leaf blade secondary veins pinnate, margin usually serrate or rarely entire. Flowers axillary or subterminal, solitary or sometimes to 3(–10 or more) in a cluster or raceme, pedicellate or subsessile. Bracteoles 2–8 or rarely more, persistent or caducous, sometimes undifferentiated from sepals. Sepals 5(or 6) or rarely more, persistent. Corolla white, red, or yellow; petals 5 or rarely more, basally connate or rarely distinct, adnate to androecium. Stamens numerous, in 1–6 whorls; outer filaments basally ± connate; anthers dorsifixed or basifixed, 2-loculed, laterally and longitudinally dehiscent. Gynoecium 3–5-carpellate. Carpels connate or rarely incompletely connate to nearly distinct. Ovary superior, rarely half inferior, 3–5-loculed, placentation axile or rarely nearly basal; ovules 2–5(to ca. 100) or more per locule; styles distinct to basally connate, rarely completely united. Fruit a loculicidal capsule or indehiscent and drupaceous or baccate, with 1 to many seeds per locule; pericarp woody, leathery, or fleshy; columella persistent or ± degenerating. Seeds globose, semiglobose, compressed oblong, ovoid, or reniform, winged or wingless; testa bony, leathery, or sometimes with a fleshy red outer layer or sarcotesta (in Anneslea and Ternstroemia), smooth or honeycombed; hilum umbilicate or linear; endosperm present or absent; embryo large or small; cotyledons fleshy or thin. About 19 genera and 600 species: tropical and subtropical Africa, tropical America, E, S, and SE Asia, SE North America, Pacific islands; 12 genera (two endemic) and 274 species (204 endemic) in China.
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