Citation: Smith, Trans. Linn. Soc. 4:216 (1798).

Derivation: After Jan Zier, F.L.S., Polish botanist; assisted F. C. Ehrhart and afterwards William Curtis; wrote numerous descriptions in Dickson's 'Fasciculi of Cryptogamic Plants'; died in London in 1796.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Shrubs to small trees; branchlets glabrous or pubescent, occasionally glandular-warty; leaves opposite, rarely appearing verticillate, exstipulate, 1-foliolate or more commonly 3-foliolate, petiolate or rarely subsessile.

Inflorescences axillary, few- to many-branched dichasial cymes, each peduncle bearing a pair of more or less persistent bracts; flowers bisexual; sepals 4, united basally; petals 4, free, imbricate, hairy, pink or white; stamens 4, free, antisepalous, not exceeding the petals, inserted on the abaxial surface of the prominent disk lobes; filaments flattish, glabrous or hairy, generally slightly dilated at the base; anthers with or without small terminal appendages, dorsifixed and versatile, introrsely and longitudinally dehiscent; disk with 4 distinct and prominent gland-like lobes alternating with the petals; gynoecium 4-carpellate; carpels free or very slightly united at the base, gland-dotted, glabrous or pubescent; ovules 2 per carpel; style inserted in a shallow depression between the lobes of the ovary, more or less twisted, lengthening during anthesis, glabrous (rarely hirsute); stigma distinctly 4-lobed.

fruit of 1-4 basally connate cocci which dehisce explosively apically and adaxially, undeveloped carpels if any persistent; exocarp coriaceous; endocarp cartilaginous and responsible for seed expulsion, ejected with the seed; seeds usually 1 (rarely 2) per coccus; outer testa membranous, inner thick, crustaceous.

Distribution:  Predominantly Australian genus of about 26 species with 1 endemic species in New Caledonia; the genus extends from north-eastern Qld to Tas. and west to KI; 1 species in S.Aust.

Biology: No text

Author: Not yet available