Family: Chloranthaceae

Habit: Trees or shrubs in the study region.

Branch: Stems with swollen nodes.

Leaves: Leaves simple, opposite, the lamina margins often denticulate to serrate, lemon-scented when crushed.

Inflorescence: Inflorescence axillary or terminal, a spike, head, or small panicle; staminate inflorescence catkin-like.

Flowers: Flowers unisexual, plants dioecious, actinomorphic; petals 3, sepal-like in pistillate flowers, somewhat fused, absent in staminate flowers; stamens 1-3 or sometimes 5; ovary superior or partly inferior, the carpel 1.

Fruit: Fruit a drupe.

Seeds: Seeds one or more per fruit.

Notes: Plants of this family typical of montane forest but one species, Hedyosmum brasiliense has been discovered in Mauritia-dominated wetlands of Madre de Dios, Peru.