Mollia

• Authority

  Maguire, Bassett. 1978. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part X. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 29: 1-288.

• Family

  Pottiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Mollia Schrank ex Lindb.

• Description

  Genus Description - Trees or shrubs; twigs, buds, leaf stalks and flower stalks covered with stellate or scaly indumentum; leaves in spirals, in general ovate to elliptic or oblong, margin entire or dentate, basal lateral nerves often more strongly developed than the other, tertiary nerves stretched between the laterals or at right angles with the midrib, veins in a closed rectangular network; flowers axillary, single or in short cymes, buds oblong, in general at least 3 times longer than their diameter; calyx lobes 5, linear, valvate, on outer face scaly, on inner appressed hairy, corolla lobes 5, imbricate or folded along the medium line, white or pinkish, often broadened and fringed at apex; stamens numerous, in 2 whorls of 5 phalanges, outer whorls longer than inner, alternating with the petals, filaments united in a tube or free, anthers narrow linear, sagittate at base, bilocular, opening along a longitudinal split, exterior stamens with anthers attached in the middle, filaments broadened, winged above the apex, interior stamens with anthers basifixed; pistils with scally ovary, simple style and slightly inflated stigma; ovary with 1 or 2 cavities, with 2 placentas opposite to each other and connected by a pulpy tissue, ovules in 2 parallel rows on each placenta; fruits capsular, 2-valved, loculicidal, globose or somewhat compressed contrary to the septum and sometimes winged along the line of dehiscence; stamens sometimes persistent along the fruit; fruit walls hairy, smooth or tuberculate, loculi with 8-20 flattened seeds in each half section of a valve in a row, fitting between narrow membranous partitions. Some species with winged seeds, others not.

• Discussion

  Mollia Martius & Zuccarini, Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 96, 60, 1824. (Conserved name). Schlechtendalia Spreng. Syst. 4(Cur. Post.): 295, 1827, non Willd. 1804. Type. Mollia speciosa. The most closely related genus is Trichospermum, the main difference being the hairy seeds in the latter. Wood anatomy has been described by Llewelyn Williams (Field Museum Nat. Hist. Bot. 15: 306, 1936).