Tetrapterys

• Authority

  Maguire, Bassett. 1978. The botany of the Guayana Highland--part XI. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 32: 1-391.

• Family

  Malpighiaceae

• Scientific Name

  Tetrapterys Cav.

• Description

  Genus Description - Vines or occasionally shrubs, the leaves usually decussate, often bearing glands on the lamina or petiole or both; stipules small, usually interpetiolar, sometimes apparently absent. Flowers borne in umbels, corymbs, or pseudoracemes, these often grouped in a paniculate inflorescence; pedicel pedunculate, the peduncle subtended by a bract and bearing 2 apical or subapical bracteoles. Lateral 4 sepals usually biglandular, the anterior eglandular or biglandular. Petals yellow or pink, glabrous or abaxially sericeous (all yellow in Guayana). Stamens 10, all fertile, the anthers usually glabrous and more or less alike, the connective not exceeding the locules. Ovary of 3 centrally connate carpels, 1 anterior and 2 posterior, all fertile; styles 3, the apex with an internal to apical stigma and dorsally smooth to truncate or short-hooked. Fruit schizocarpic, breaking apart into 3 samaras (or fewer due to abortion) separating from a pyramidal torus, each samara having its largest wings lateral, usually 4 discrete wings; dorsal wing smaller, sometimes reduced to a crest or lost; intermediate winglets or projections sometimes present.

• Discussion

  Type. Tetrapterys citrifolia (Swartz) Persoon. This is a difficult genus of about 90 species, all found in the New World. Not only does it need revision at the level of species; its limits as a genus are also somewhat vague, since some of its species are very like Mascagnia.