Sabiaceae

▪ plant family

      only family in the order Sabiales, with 3 genera and about 100 species of evergreen trees or lianas (liana) native to tropical America and Southeast Asia to Malesia. It belongs among the basal eudicots, which includes orders such as Buxales, Gunnerales, Proteales, Ranunculales, and Trochodendrales. Members of Sabiaceae have small flowers with the stamens opposite the petals or sepals and somewhat flattened and curved fleshy fruits. The South American Ophiocaryon paradoxum has a coiled embryo and is known as the snake nut. Meliosma, with about 70 species, has two anthers that open explosively after being held under tension by two or three complex staminodes (sterile stamens).

Paul E. Berry

 

* * *