''Cremastosperma'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest ...

, subfamily Malmeoideae, tribe Malmeae. In 2018 there were 34 recognised species distributed in Central and South America. ''Cremastosperma'' was described by

Robert Elias Fries (Klas) Robert Elias Fries (11 July 1876, Uppsala – 29 January 1966, Stockholm), the youngest son of Theodor Magnus Fries (1832–1913) and grandson of Elias Magnus Fries (1794–1878) and an expert on mushrooms. A Swedish botanist who was a m ...

in 1930, based on ''Aberemoa pedunculata'' Diels, originally described by

Ludwig Diels Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Pritzel thro ...

(1906), which thus became the type species ''Cremastosperma pedunculatum'' (Diels) R.E.Fr.. Species of ''Cremastosperma'' are found in lowland to pre-montane tropical forest in the Neotropics. The greatest species diversity is distributed in the narrow tropical zone to the west of the Andean mountain chain on the Pacific Ocean side of north-western South America, north into Central America as far as Costa Rica; and on the eastern side of the Andes extending from Colombia through eastern Ecuador and Peru as far south as Bolivia. Two species are found in coastal Venezuela (''Cremastosperma macrocarpum'' Maas and ''Cremastosperma venezuelanum'' Pirie), and one in French Guiana (''Cremastosperma brevipes'' (

DC. Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle ...

) R.E.Fr.).

Description

''Cremastosperma'' species are small understory trees with typical

floral morphology (sepals and petals in whorls of three; indefinite numbers of spirally arranged stamens and carpels) bearing a resemblance to various other Neotropical genera with apocarpous, single-seeded, stipitate fruits (such as ''

Guatteria ''Guatteria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. It is the largest genus in the family in South America, and the dominant genus in mature forest. The fruits are berries, borne in clusters on short stalks. Species include:

''). The most useful character by which they can be distinguished from these and other similar Neotropical Annonaceae is displayed by the midrib of the leaves, which is raised on the upper side with an unusual, mostly conspicuous, longitudinal groove. ,

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

accepts the following 34 species:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q8351571 Annonaceae genera Taxa named by Robert Elias Fries