ALSEUOSMIACEAE
Morphological description
Shrubs, exstipulate.
Leaves
Alternate, crowded, simple.
Flowers
Flowers actinomorphic, sympetalous, usually 5-merous; ovary inferior; stamens usually 5, usually alternipetalous.
Fruits
Fruit a few-seeded berry
Different from: Gesneriaceae: leaves opposite, flowers usually zygomorphic, ovary superior. - Caprifoliaceae: leaves opposite.
Distribution: The family is Australasian: New Zealand, New Caledonia, Australia, New Guinea. In Malesia only one rare species of Wittsteinia.
Notes: The family is probably closest to Escalloniaceae. - Wittsteinia papuana often has cleistogamic flowers.
Literature: C.G.G. J. van Steenis, Fl. Males. I, 10 (1986) 335-336.
Spot characters (Van Balgooy): Leaves whorled or verticillate (Wittsteinia, Alseuosmia [pacific], Crispiloba [Australia]), leaf margin dentate (Wittsteinia), corolla or perianth fimbriate or bifid (Crispiloba), ovary inferior (Wittsteinia).
Illustrations in plant portraits: Fig. 9. Wittsteinia papuana (Steen.) Steen. (Alseuosmiaceae). Reproduced from Flora Malesiana I, 10 (1986) 336, fig. 1. 25.
Image in PhytoImages for Alseuosmiaceae