Large trees to shrubs. Buttresses absent. Spines absent. Stilt roots absent. Bark gray, brown; not peeling in strips. Vertical stripes in the inner bark or wood absent. Odor absent, aromatic. Exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.
Complex hairs absent. Stinging hairs absent. Mature twig indumentum absent.
Leaves spiral; not scale-like; simple; all of the same type; not modified into spines; coriaceous to leathery; gland-dotted, or not gland-dotted; symmetric at the base; not dissected; smooth margined. Epidermis not waxy. Venation pinnate. Secondary veins open; prominent, or not prominent, but visible. Smallest veins not prominent, but visible, or not visible; net like. Intramarginal vein present. Stalk of blade less than a quarter the length of the blade; not winged; attached to base of leaf blade; not swollen. Stipules absent. Domatia absent. Basal glands absent. Hairs on mature leaf absent.
Inflorescences present, or represented by solitary flowers only; axillary, or on the trunk or branches; the flowers from a single point on the stem; specialized inflorescence units absent; numerous and persistent inflorescence bracts absent. Flowers bisexual; stalked; about 0.5 cm long or across, or to about 3 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 tepals. Tepals 7-33(-100). Stamens 4-100 (many); filaments absent; free of the perianth; all equal in size; anisomerous, or polystemonous. Anthers 2 loculed; not awned; dehiscing by long slits. Ovary superior. Carpels separate; 100 (many). Locules 1. Styles solitary. Stigmas 1 lobed; not distinctive. Fruit follicular; non-fleshy; not multiple; splitting; not enclosed in, or sitting on, fleshy perianth parts; wingless. Seeds 1 per fruit; less than 5 mm; wingless; uniform in cross-section; aril absent; endospermic.
Leaves spiral, aromatic and gland dotted; venation almost invisible; apocarpous tepaline flower; fruits star-anise form. Taxon images: illicium.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.
