Taxon Details: Crateva L.
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A revision of the American species of the genus Crateva (Capparaceae) (Cornejo & Iltis, 2008).
A revision of the American species of the genus Crateva (Capparaceae) (Cornejo & Iltis, 2008).Family:
Capparaceae (Magnoliophyta)
Capparaceae (Magnoliophyta)
Scientific Name:
Crateva L.
Crateva L.
Primary Citation:
Sp. Pl. 444. 1753
Sp. Pl. 444. 1753
Accepted Name:
This name is currently accepted.
This name is currently accepted.
Description:
Description: Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, palmately 3-foliolate, long-petiolate, deciduous. Inflorescence terminal, corymbose racemes. Flowers long-pedicellate, bisexual to cyclically unisexual by abortion, zygomorphic. Calyx valvate, but open from earliest bud stage, sepals 4-6(-7, in C. urbaniana), free, costate, their basal half fused to the prominently accrescent, massive, radially symmetrical hypanthium, with a dish to bowl-shape nectary coating the hypanthium within; corolla (absent only in C. urbaniana), with open aestivation, petals 4, elliptic to oblanceolate, attenuate to a claw at the base, inserted on the edge of the disk between the sepals. Stamens 8-50, fused at the base forming a thick and short common androphore; filaments and gynophore filiform, projecting out and upward in front of the petals. Ovary globose to ovoid, elliptic or linear, unilocular; ovules many, on 2 or 4 parietal placentae; stigma sessile or subsessile, capitate. Fruits amphisarca or pepos, globose, ovoid, or oblong, on an elongate gynophore; pulp white. Seeds cochleate-reniform, testa smooth, embryo white, cotyledons incumbent-convolute.
Distribution: A Pantropical genus (except for Australia) of Capparaceae, mostly represented in the Old World, centered in Southeast Asia and Madagascar (Jacobs, 1964). In America this genus is widely distributed from Mexico to Argentina.
Ecology: Mostly in lowland forests on poorly-drained soils.
Number of species: This genus comprises 12 species, four in the Neotropics.
Taxonomic notes: The generic name has been misspelled as Crataeva.
Description: Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, palmately 3-foliolate, long-petiolate, deciduous. Inflorescence terminal, corymbose racemes. Flowers long-pedicellate, bisexual to cyclically unisexual by abortion, zygomorphic. Calyx valvate, but open from earliest bud stage, sepals 4-6(-7, in C. urbaniana), free, costate, their basal half fused to the prominently accrescent, massive, radially symmetrical hypanthium, with a dish to bowl-shape nectary coating the hypanthium within; corolla (absent only in C. urbaniana), with open aestivation, petals 4, elliptic to oblanceolate, attenuate to a claw at the base, inserted on the edge of the disk between the sepals. Stamens 8-50, fused at the base forming a thick and short common androphore; filaments and gynophore filiform, projecting out and upward in front of the petals. Ovary globose to ovoid, elliptic or linear, unilocular; ovules many, on 2 or 4 parietal placentae; stigma sessile or subsessile, capitate. Fruits amphisarca or pepos, globose, ovoid, or oblong, on an elongate gynophore; pulp white. Seeds cochleate-reniform, testa smooth, embryo white, cotyledons incumbent-convolute.
Distribution: A Pantropical genus (except for Australia) of Capparaceae, mostly represented in the Old World, centered in Southeast Asia and Madagascar (Jacobs, 1964). In America this genus is widely distributed from Mexico to Argentina.
Ecology: Mostly in lowland forests on poorly-drained soils.
Number of species: This genus comprises 12 species, four in the Neotropics.
Taxonomic notes: The generic name has been misspelled as Crataeva.