Exclusively woody or subwoody climbers, shrubs and few trees (usually cauliflorous) Exclusively woody or subwoody climbers, shrubs and few trees (usually cauliflorous)
Distribution
Temperate (warm), or sub-tropical to tropical. Pantropical and warm
Floral characters
Aggregate in inflorescences, racemes or panicles. Always unisexual flowers, yellow or white. Dioecious plants.2-merous. Female flower sometimes with staminodia. Ovary superior 1-6, free carpels
Leaf characters
-Simple -Entire -Alternate -Usually palmatelly veined -Petiole often with characteristical apical pulvinar flexion -Extipulate
Stipules
absent
Fruit characters
1-6 drupes per flower, red or orange (moon-shaped). The fruits are eaten and dispersed by birds.
Glands
absent
Hairs
present
Latex
absent
Uses
: The resin extracted from the bark of Trochodendrum are used to prepare poison for fishes and arrows (curare) by some jungle´s tribes. Curare is also used for muscle-relaxation in operations. The drupes of Anamita cocculus has a fish poison, and also is used against skin diseases. The roots of Jateorhiza palmata (kalumba) is used as tonicum and against fever.
Chemical characters
Cyanogenic, or not cyanogenic. Alkaloids present (nearly always), or absent. Berberine present (in at least three genera). Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols present, or absent; kaempferol. Ellagic acid absent (3 species, 3 genera). Aluminium accumulation not found. C3. C3 physiology recorded directly in Menispermum.
Distribution maps
(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):
Menispermaceae
map: see van Balgooy 1993; Fu & Hong 2000: Malyschev & Peschkova 2004; Rosa Ortiz-Gentry, pers. comm. 2004
