Myristicaceae

The Myristicaceae are a family of flowering plants native to Africa, Asia, Pacific islands, and the Americas and has been recognized by most taxonomists. It is sometimes called the 'nutmeg family', after its most famous member, Myristica fragrans, the source of the spices nutmeg and mace. The best known genera are Myristica in Asia and Virola in the Neotropics. The family consists of about 21 genera with about 520 species of trees, shrubs and rarely lianas (Pycnanthus) found in tropical forests across the world. Most of the species are large trees that are valued in the timber industry. They are typically trees with reddish sap and distinctive pagoda-like growth (known as myristicaceous branching) in which horizontal branching only occurs at certain nodes along the main axis of the trunk, each node separated by a large gap where no branching occurs. All genera are dioecious, except Endocomia and some Iryanthera. The inner bark is usually pink to reddish or light colored then oxidizing as such. When cut, the tree trunk exudes a red or orange resin; stems and young twigs often will exude clear sap (not colored) that may smell spicy. The foliage is generally spicy-aromatic and the leaves are glossy, dark green, simple, entire, 2-ranked, undersides often whitish or tomentose, with dark brown punctations or not, usually with complex caducous hairs colored golden yellow to red. The flowers are usually small, highly reduced, fragrant, with 3-5 tepals, inner perianth whitish-green, yellow, orange, reddish-pink to rusty-brown, arranged in axillary paniculate inflorescences or unbranched wart-like structures (like Knema). The female flowers are without staminodes, with stigmas often lobed. The male flowers with fused stamens arranged in a synandrium. Pollen is monosulcate, often boat-shaped. The fruit is a leathery dehiscent capsule, with rusty indument or not, containing a single seed that is arillate or not; when present, the aril variously laciniate or entire. In most genera, the aril is colored red but also can be orange or white and translucent. The single seed has ruminate endosperm and is uniform in color or rarely with black blotches (Compsoneura).