Lecythidaceae

Diagnosis: Flowers with a coiled androecial hood; ovary 2-locular; seeds with either a lateral aril or a sarcotesta; embryo without differentiated cotyledons.

Leaves: Leaves distichous, not clustered at ends of twigs, usually at ends of slender twigs (<5 mm diam.); venation eucamptrodromous toward base, brochidromous toward apex, the tertiary veins reticulate.

Flowers: Flowers zygomorphic, usually > 2 and < 6 cm diam.; calyx not enclosed in bud, usually with 6, infrequently with 4 calyx-lobes; petals usually 6, infrequently 4, either flat or curled under at apices; androecium with a well-developed hood, the appendices forming an inward coil, the stamens 70-700 in staminal ring, the anthers <2 mm long, with lateral dehiscence; ovary usually 2-locular, the style erect or geniculate.

Fruit: Fruits dehiscent, globose, depressed globose, or turbinate, the opercular opening larger in diam. than diam. of seeds.

Seeds: Seeds round or angular in cross section, not embedded in pulp, without wing, with either a lateral aril or a sarcotesta, the testa glabrous; embryo without differentiated cotyledons.

Distribution: Ca. 85 described species, Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama; Pacific coastal Colombia and Ecuador; Andean Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador; Amazonian Colombia,Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil; and the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil.