Description: Woody climbers or sometimes straggling shrubs when young.
Leaves opposite, domatia sometimes present; stipules interpetiolar, sheathing, membranous.
Inflorescence of axillary or terminal heads; flowers 2–4 together, sessile, bisexual or unisexual. Flowers with ovaries partially or completely fused. Calyx truncate or toothed. Corolla tube cylindrical, 3–5-lobed, valvate in bud. Stamens inserted in tube; anthers usually exserted. Ovary 2- or 4-locular; ovules one per loculus, attached near base. Style exserted, usually 2-lobed.
Fruit of individual flowers a 1-seeded drupe, pyrene solitary; fruit united in a head to form a fleshy syncarp.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 93 species, tropical regions. Australia: 9 species (several endemic), Qld, N.S.W., Vic., N.T., W.A.
A number of species formerly in the genus Morinda are now in Gynochthodes.
Text by S. McCune, Flora of New South Wales Vol. 3: 497 (1992), as Morinda. Revised June 2017).
Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed June 2017), following S.G. Razafimandimbison & B. Bremer, Nomenclatural changes and taxonomic notes in the tribe Morindeae (Rubiaceae). Adansonia, ser. 3, 33(2): 283-309 (2011).
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Heads of 1–3 flowers united on short axillary peduncles to 5 mm long; leaves with prominent reticulate venation when dry, domatia small, inconspicuous but more or less regular in vein axils, visible only on lower surface | Gynochthodes canthoides |
| Heads of 3–20 flowers united on terminal, rarely axillary, paired peduncles more than 5 mm long; leaves with more or less obscure venation, domatia large, in vein axils or sometimes absent, conspicuous on both surfaces | Gynochthodes jasminoides |
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