Pittosporaceae

Mostly evergreen trees or shrubs (outside Mal. some woody climbers), often aromatic (in leaves and fruit), bark of the stem (and roots) containing a circle of schizogenous resin ducts outside the phloem; twigs sometimes ending in a thorny tip; indument if present consisting of simple (exceptionally 2-armed or capitateglandular) hairs. Leaves simple, penninerved, spirally arranged, frequently crowded towards the twig ends, mostly entire. Stipules 0. Flowers actinomorphic, mostly 5-merous, bisexual or functionally unisexual or ± polygamous, solitary or in few- to many-flowered, axillary or terminal, bracteate corymbs or thyrses. Bracteoles often 2. Sepals imbricate, free or more rarely connate below. Petals imbricate, their lower portion often narrow and loosely cohering in a tube, caducous. Stamens 5, episepalous, erect, free, or slightly connivent below; anthers 2-celled, introrse, basifixed, dehiscing lengthwise (or by pores). Disk absent (but cf. Citriobatus). Ovary superior, sessile or short-stipitate, mostly 1-celled, sometimes completely or incompletely 2-celled, placentas 2—5(-6), parietal or basal, (rarely sometimes axile in celled ovaries); style simple; stigma thickened or lobed. Ovules mostly ~, anatropous, with 1 integument. Fruit a berry or non-dehiscent, or a loculicidal capsule. Seeds mostly often immersed in a viscid pulp, rarely winged; testa thin, smooth; albumen copious, hard; embryo small, close to the hilum; cotyledons small, 2-5. Distribution. Only in the Old World, 9 (mostly small) genera of which 6 are entirely confined to Australia, 2 occur in Australia and E. Malaysia, and 1, viz Pittosporum, is widely distributed from West Africa (also in Teneriffe & Madeira) and Madagascar through Asia, Malaysia, and Australia to Polynesia. The general character of distribution shows a remarkable similarity to that of Goodeniaceae.