Gustavia L.

Understorey to canopy trees, pachycaul or leptocaul growth form. Leaves scattered or clustered at branch ends on slender or stout twigs, medium to large-sized (10-120 cm long), glabrous; secondary venation reticulate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, racemose, growth of rachises determinate. Flowers present with leaves, actinomorphic, not markedly fleshy; sepals absent (then calyx entire) or 4-6; petals 6-8 (12 or 18 in G. romeroi), flat at apices; androecium a wide tube, the stamens at margen of tube, curved inward, but not reflexed as in Allantoma, the anthers poricidally dehiscent; ovary 4-6(10)-locular, ovules 7-100 per locule, attached on septum toward apex of locule, the style short, without stylar collar. Fruit indehiscent, remaining on tree or dropping to ground at maturity, usually globose, infrequently cylindric (e.g., G. brachycarpa), the pericarp somewhat soft at maturity, thin or thick. Seeds not winged, infrequently one, usually 2-5 per fruit, not flattened, not embedded in pulp (i.e., seeds easily removed from pulp), the testa glabrous; cotyledons absent, fleshy; embryo macropodial.