Description: Monoecious or dioecious climbers, sometimes scandent in juvenile stages; bark on twigs very tough and with numerous lenticels; milky latex often present.
Leaves scabrous below. Male flowers in axillary spikes, solitary or paired, pedunculate; perianth 3- or 4-lobed, tomentose; stamens 2–4, inflexed. Female flowers clustered in a globose head, usually solitary on a short peduncle or sometimes at base of male peduncle; heads finely tomentose with overlapping bracteoles obscuring flowers; perianth urn-shaped, tomentose; stigma bifid, protruding through perianth.
Fruit a ± fleshy drupe.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 9 spp., trop. Amer., Madag., SE Asia, N.Cal., Aust. Aust.: 1 sp. (native).
Text by G. J. Harden
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Trophis scandens |
|
