Ochrosia
Gen. Pl., 144. 1789.
Shrubs or small trees; latex milky. Stems erect, unarmed, glabrous. Leaves persistent, opposite [whorled], petiolate; stipular colleters intrapetiolar; laminar colleters absent. Inflorescences subterminal or axillary, cymose, pedunculate. Flowers: calycine colleters absent; corolla white or cream [pale yellow], salverform, aestivation dextrorse; corolline corona absent; androecium and gynoecium not united into a gynostegium; stamens inserted at top of corolla tube; anthers not connivent, not adherent to stigma, connectives not appendiculate or enlarged, locules 4; pollen free, not massed into pollinia, translators absent; nectary annular. Fruits drupaceous, paired or solitary, erect, red [yellow, orange], ellipsoid to ovoid, compressed, smooth, glabrous. Seeds elliptic or orbiculate, flattened, narrowly winged, not beaked, not comose, not arillate. x = 10.
Distribution
Introduced; Florida, Asia, Indian Ocean Islands (Réunion), Pacific Islands, Australia.
Discussion
Species ca. 40 (1 in the flora).
According to P. Boiteau (1981), the hard, fibrous endocarp of Ochrosia fruits facilitates flotation and dispersal by water.
Selected References
None.