Large trees to small trees. Buttresses present, or absent; tall, or short. Spines absent. Stilt roots absent. Bark red, brown; not peeling in strips. Slash yellow. Vertical stripes in the inner bark or wood absent. Odor absent. Exudate present; white; flowing; not blackening on exposure to air. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.
Complex hairs absent. Stinging hairs absent. Mature twig indumentum present, or absent; dense, or sparse.
Leaves opposite; not scale-like; simple; all of the same type; not modified into spines; coriaceous; not gland-dotted; symmetric at the base; not dissected; smooth margined. Epidermis not waxy. Venation pinnate. Secondary veins open; prominent. Smallest veins not prominent, but visible; ladder like. Intramarginal vein absent. Stalk of blade 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; on an unbranched axis, or on a branched axis; specialized inflorescence units absent; numerous and persistent inflorescence bracts absent. Flowers bisexual; stalked; 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 distinct calyx and corolla whorls. Sepals 5; free; persistent in fruit; not growing any further after flowering. Epicalyx absent. Petals present; 5; all joined; not fleshy; deciduous; not stalked; entire. Stamens 5; filaments present; free of each other; joined to the perianth; all equal in size; isomerous; alternating with the sepals (when isomerous). Anthers 2 loculed; attached along the side; not awned; dehiscing by long slits. Ovary superior. Carpels joined; 2. Locules 1-2. Styles solitary. Stigmas 2 lobed; not distinctive. Fruit berry-like; fleshy; not multiple; not splitting; not enclosed in, or sitting on, fleshy perianth parts; wingless. Seeds 1-2 per fruit; about 1 cm long to much more than 1 cm long; wingless; uniform in cross-section; aril absent; non-endospermic.
Leaves opposite; flowing white latex; inflorescence units racemose. Taxon images: sarcospe.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.
