ALTINGIACEAE
Morphological description
Trees, stipulate; exudate resinous.
Leaves
Alternate, crowded, simple (or lobed blade).
Flowers
Flowers without perianth; male flowers grouped into heads arranged in panicles or racemes, 4 to many stamens surrounded by bracts; females flowers in condensed ball-shaped panicles on long peduncles or in the lower part of bisexual inflorescences, ovary (semi-)inferior.
Fruits
Fruit a woody capsule with spines; carpels opening; seeds narrowly winged.
Different from: Casuarinaceae: have needle-like leaves; Hamamelidaceae have stipules inserted on the stem versus on the petiole base and no resin canals.
Distribution: The family has a relictual distribution: from South and East Northern America to southern Turkey and Greece to Southeast Asia up to Java.
Notes: The family has only one genus, Liquidambar, although Altingia – now considered synonym - is very often used as separate genus in East Asia and Malesia.
Literature: C.G.G. J. van Steenis, Fl. Males. I, 10 (1986) 335-336.
Spot characters (Van Balgooy): Resinous exudate, leaf domatia, compact inflorescence, compound fruits, winged seeds.
Illustrations in plant portraits: None.
Image in PhytoImages for Altingiaceae