Large trees to shrubs. Buttresses absent. Spines absent. Stilt roots absent. Bark gray; not peeling in strips. Vertical stripes in the inner bark or wood absent. Odor absent. Exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.
Complex hairs present; disk-shaped, or star-like. Stinging hairs absent. Mature twig indumentum absent.
Leaves spiral; not scale-like; simple; all of the same type; not modified into spines; coriaceous; not gland-dotted; symmetric at the base; dissected, or not dissected; palmately lobed; smooth margined. Epidermis not waxy. Venation palmate. Secondary veins closed; prominent. Smallest veins prominent, or not prominent, but visible; net like, or ladder like. Intramarginal vein absent. Stalk of blade a quarter to one half the length of the blade to more than half the length of the blade; not winged; attached to base of leaf blade; not swollen, or swollen; swollen at one end. Stipules present; free from one another; laterally placed; not encircling the twig; scale-like; not fringed; large; not persistent, or persistent. Domatia absent. Basal glands absent. Hairs on mature leaf present, or absent; dense, or sparse.
Inflorescences represented by solitary flowers only; axillary. Flowers bisexual; to about 3 cm long or across to more than 10 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 0; fully joined; persistent in fruit; not growing any further after flowering. Epicalyx present (3-6 segments). Petals present; 5; all joined; not fleshy; deciduous; not stalked; entire. Stamens 100 (many); filaments present; joined; joined to the perianth; all equal in size; polystemonous. Anthers 1 loculed; attached along the side; not awned; dehiscing by long slits. Ovary superior. Carpels joined; 5. Locules 5-10 (usually 5, rarely 10). Styles solitary. Stigmas 5 lobed; distinctive; club shaped. Fruit capsular; non-fleshy; not multiple; splitting; not enclosed in, or sitting on, fleshy perianth parts; wingless. Seeds 3-100 per fruit (many); barely visible to less than 5 mm; wingless; uniform in cross-section; aril absent; non-endospermic.
Calyx generally cupular; staminal column shorter than the petals; one stigma only. Taxon images: thespes.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.