Omphalea
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Authority
Maguire, Bassett. 1967. The botany of the Guayana Highland--Part VII. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 17: 1-439.
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Family
Euphorbiaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Monoecious, apetalous, with imbricate sepals. For this reason Pax has classified this genus as belonging to the Gelonieae. It is, however, no doubt closely related to Plukenetia, as was correctly recognized by Croizat. It has a style connate into a cylindrical stem and is scandent as is Plukenetia. But the number of stamens is 2-3, the filaments shortly connate.
Distribution and Ecology - Omphalea is typically a neotropic genus having its center of development in the West Indies from where it radiates into Panama, San Salvador, the Guianas, the Hylaea and South America. In the paleotropics it occurs in 3 isolated areas: Philippines, Madagascar and Australia.