Chlorocardium (Lauraceae taxonomy)
Evergreen trees. Terminal buds not perulate, inconspicuous.
Leaves opposite, penninerved.
Inflorescences botryoid to thyrso-paniculate, not involucrate.
Flowers tetramerous or irregular, bisexual. Tepals 4-10, (sub)equal. Fertile stamens 12-20, tongue-shaped, papillose, in 3-5 indistinct whorls, all with paired glands. Anthers 4-locular, pollen sacs arranged in two pairs above each other, upper pollen sacs latrorse, lower pollen sacs latrorse-extrorse. Staminodes mostly absent. Ovary superior, in a cup-shaped receptacle.
Fruit large, with a distinct cupule, which either forms a shallow bowl below the berry or encloses it almost completely. Tepals deciduous.
Tropical South America. Two species.
Chlorocardium is unique among the Lauraceae in both its flower structure and its wood structure. Flowers with a variable number of parts, especially an increased number of stamen, occur also in some Laureae, but these have involucrate inflorescences and their stamens have distinct filaments and smooth, thin-walled anthers. Tongue-shaped, papillose anthers, on the other hand, occur in a few species of the Ocotea group, but these have (usually) normal trimerous flowers, with glands only at the base of the stamens of the third whorl. Both species of Chlorocardium are very poisonous.
Further information:
Rohwer, J.G., Richter, H.G. & van der Werff, H. 1991. Two new genera of neotropical Lauraceae, and critical remarks on the generic delimitation. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 78: 338-400.