Bignoniaceae

Trees, shrubs, lianas, very rarely herbaceous (extra-Mal.); twigs often lenticellate and nodes with gland fields; spines very rare (extra-Mal.). Stipules absent. Leaves simple or mostly compound (digitate or impari-1-4-pinnate), (in Mal.) decussate, rarely in whorls of 3-4, often provided with glands underneath, in the New World often provided with terminal tendrils, rarely scattered or in pseudo-whorls (extra- Mal.); domatia sometimes present (fig. 8b, 23h). Inflorescences bracteate, cymose, but not rarely thyrses contracted to racemiform or racemose inflorescences, or even reduced to solitary flowers (extra-Mal.), terminal, axillary or from the old wood. Pedicels mostly with 1-2 bracteoles. Flowers usually very showy, rather large, bisexual, articulate with the pedicel or not. Calyx connate, closed in bud and later (not rarely irregularly) splitting into lobes, or cupular, or spathaceous, or lobed from the beginning and with equal or unequal, valvate lobes, developing earlier than the corolla, often glandular outside and inside with water and slime producing glands and hydathodes, persistent or circumscissile caducous along an abscission line. Corolla sympetalous, campanulate, tubular, funnel- or salver-shaped, mostly zygomorphic, lobes equal or unequal, valvate or imbricate in bud, tube often with a narrow cylindrical (constricted) lower part (basal tube) and a widened upper part (upper tube). Stamens 5 almost equal, or mostly 4 didynamous, the 5th sterile, rudimentary, adnate to the corolla tube, mostly inserted at the rim of the basal tube and not rarely (glandular) hairy at the insertion, more rarely inserted higher up. Anthers basifixed, 2-celled, rarely one cell barren or 1-celled, introrse, dehiscing lengthwise, usually the anthers connivent in pairs; anther cells often free and divergent, connective not rarely produced. Disk intrastaminal, mostly annular, rarely absent. Ovary superior, 2-celled, rarely 1- or 4-celled (extra-Mal.); style filiform, stigma usually 2-lipped, sensitive. Ovules (in Mal.) in each cell on the septum in two or more rows of 3-~, mostly on 2 placentas. Capsule 2-valved, either loculicid with the septum perpendicular to the valves — sometimes provided with an additional transverse false septum — or septicid with the septum parallel with the valves, or (extra-Mal.) an indehiscent, 1-celled, soft or hard-shelled, pulpy berry. Seeds in each cell attached to the dissepiment in one or more rows, inserted transverse to axis of fruit, anatropous, mostly on both sides with hyaline wings; embryo exalbuminous, the cotyledons mostly notched, sometimes on both sides. Germination always epigeal. Distribution. About 120 genera and some 650 spp., mainly in the tropics and subtropics, roughly between 40° N and 30-35° S, very few in the warm-temperate zone; in Malesia: 14 native genera of which 2 are endemic, viz Hieris in Penang and Lamiodendron in Papuasia. Among the remaining 12 one occurs through the Old World (Dolichandrone), 7 are shared with continental SE. Asia (two of which extend also to Africa and Madagascar: Fernandoa, Stereospermum) and 4 with Australia and Melanesia; the latter occur in Malesia only in the east except Deplanchea which ranges westward to Sumatra