Lacistemataceae is a family of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s, consisting 2 genera, Lacistema

Lacistema

A genus of plant in family Lacistemataceae. It consists of 11 species:*Lacistema krukovii Sleumer*Lacistema macbridei Baehni *Lacistema nena Macbride...

Sw. (11 species) and Lozania

Lozania

Lozania is a genus of Lacistemataceae consisting of five species:*Lozania glabrata A.H. Gentry*Lozania grandiflora Schult.*Lozania klugii Mansfeld...

Mutis ex Caldas (5 species).

Common name

Waits Numi


Meaning: Waits = unknown, numi = tree or shrub
Language: Shuar, Shuar Indigenous people, Eastern Ecuador.

Monographs

Current: www.lacistemataceae.org


Previous: Sleumer H O (1980) Flora Neotropica: Monograph Number 22 Flacourtiaceae, The New York Botanical Garden, New York: 182-206

Typical family morphology

Evergreen treelets (small tree) and shrubs, up to 20 metres height;

Leaves: alternately arranged, mainly elliptical in shape. Brochiododromus leaf venation;

Inflorescence: single or multiple catkin-like that emerge from the leaf axils;

Flowers: insignificant (circa 1 mm), bisexual; subtended by a bract;

Ovary: superior;

Stamen: one forked;

Fruit: red-maroon-brown coloured which split to release seed;

Seed: 1-3, white coloration.

Distribution

West Indies and from Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 southwards across Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...

 and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, excluding Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 and temperate Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...