Utania

Description

Small to medium trees, usually 1-3m tall, but occasionally up to 30m. The trunk is orthotropic (grows vertically), monopodial (growing upward from a single point), with continuous growth. Bark becomes fissured as tree ages. Features that distinguish this genus from other Gentianaceae include an architecture with continuous stem or trunk growth; branches that grow plagiotropic (inclined away from the vertical, inclined towards the horizontal) with a leaf arrangement that is distichous ("two rowed", where leaves are arranged in two vertical columns on opposite sides of the stem); non-resinous terminal vegetative buds; and an inflorescence that is pendulous and has a structure that is an elongate panicle with branching that is cymose (several pairs of branching, condensed, distinctly shorter than rachis), white flowers; the dried fruit (pale to dark brown at maturity) have a surface that is firm and smooth, with the epidermis not detaching from the pericarp. Shared with some other genera, Utania has fruit that do not produce any latex and polygonal seeds.