E

Central and Tropical South. America to Trinidad. Cyclanthaceae, herbs and hemiepiphytes, vegetatively easy to confuse with palms (Arecaceae). Leaves simple, alternate or clustered, sometimes arising from the soil, petiolate, bifid or multi-lobed, rarely entire. Infructescence consisting of multiple fruits tightly aggregated and surrounded by one or various bracts. Fruit a berry. Seeds many per fruit. Petiole base sheathing the stem