TILIACEAE

 

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Trees or shrubs, rarely herbaceous, pubescent mostly of branched hairs; leaves alternate, simple, commonly deciduous, often oblique, stipulate, flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, cymose, the sepals 5, distinct or basally connate, usually valvate, the petals as many as sepals or lacking, sometimes sepaloid, distinct, stamens 10- numerous, hypogynous, distinct or briefly connate at base or in fascicles of 5-10 each, the anthers 2 celled, dehiscing by apical pores or by longitudinal slits; pistil 1, the ovary superior, 2-10 loculed and carpelled, the placentation axile, the ovules 1-several in each locule, ascending or pendulous, more or less anatropous, the style 1and stigma usually as many as locules; fruit fleshy or dry, of various types; seed with straight embryo, the endosperm present and varying from scant to copious.