Pachycladon Hook.f.

Caudex woody; inflorescences terminal, slender; fruit terete; seeds uniseriate, wingless.

Caudex soft to semi-woody; inflorescences lateral or terminal, if terminal stout; fruit laterally compressed; seeds biseriate, winged or wingless.

Short-lived perennial herbs, glabrous or sparsely to densely hirsute with simple and forked trichomes. Stems ascending to spreading, single or several from the caudex, simple or branched. Caudex stout and soft to slender and woody. Basal leaves rosulate, petiolate, simple, lobed, serrate, to more-or-less entire. Cauline leaves sessile to shortly petiolate, simple, serrate to entire. Racemes terminal or lateral, branched, slender to stout, few- to manyflowered, ebracteate, elongated in fruit. Sepals oblong, deciduous. Petals white, oblanceolate to spathulate, clawed. Stamens 6. Anthers oblong, short apiculate at apex. Nectar glands confluent and subtending bases of all stamens. Ovules 5 to 100 per locule. Fruit dehiscent, terete to laterally compressed, glabrous; valves with an obvious midvein and obscure marginal veins; septum usually complete, rarely incomplete; style distinct to moreor- less absent; stigma capitate, entire to weakly bifid. Seeds uniseriate to biseriate, winged or wingless, oblong; seed coat minutely reticulate, mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons incumbent or accumbent.

[Reproduced from Heenan et al. (2002, New Zealand J. Bot. 40: 543–562) with permission from The Royal Society of New Zealand.]