Small trees to shrubs. Buttresses absent. Spines absent. Stilt roots absent. Bark gray, brown; not peeling in strips. Exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.
Complex hairs absent. Stinging hairs absent. Mature twig indumentum present, or absent; dense, or sparse.
Leaves two-ranked; not scale-like; simple; all of the same type; not modified into spines; coriaceous; not gland-dotted; very asymmetric at the base, or symmetric at the base; not dissected; smooth margined. Epidermis waxy, or not waxy. Venation pinnate. Secondary veins open; prominent to not prominent, but visible. Smallest veins not prominent, but visible to not visible; net like, or ladder like. Intramarginal vein absent. Stalk of blade absent to less than a quarter the length of the blade; not winged; attached to base of leaf blade; not swollen. Stipules present; free from one another; laterally placed; not encircling the twig; scale-like; not fringed; small; not persistent. Domatia absent. Basal glands absent. Hairs on mature leaf present, or absent; dense, or sparse.
Inflorescences present; axillary; the flowers from a single point on the stem; specialized inflorescence units absent; numerous and persistent inflorescence bracts absent. Flowers at least some flowers unisexual; with male and female flowers on the same plant; stalked; with the parts barely visible to the eye to about 0.5 cm long or across; round; with male or female parts not raised on a column. Hypanthium absent. Disk absent. Perianth present; with all whorls looking like sepals. Sepals 6; free; persistent in fruit; not growing any further after flowering, or growing slightly after flowering. Epicalyx absent. Petals absent. Stamens 3; filaments present; joined; free of the perianth; all equal in size; anisomerous. Anthers 2 loculed; attached by the base; not awned; dehiscing by long slits. Ovary superior. Carpels joined; 3. Locules 3. Styles solitary, or free; 3. Stigmas 3 lobed; not distinctive. Fruit capsular; fleshy to non-fleshy; not multiple; splitting; not enclosed in, or sitting on, fleshy perianth parts; wingless. Seeds 6 per fruit; less than 5 mm; wingless; uniform in cross-section; aril absent; endospermic.
Leaves in flat sprays, looking like a compound leaf; flowers in axils, small; stamens 3; fruits on enlarged calyx. Taxon images: breynia.gif
Cite this publication as: Jarvie, J.K. and
Ermayanti (1996 onwards). `Tree Genera of Borneo – Descriptions and
Illustrations’ URL
http://django.harvard.edu/users/jjarvie/Borneo.htm/.
Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz,
Paine and Zurcher (1993) should also be cited.
