Horsfieldia

Shrubs or usually trees, dioecious; Twigs sometimes angular or with two-raised lines, lenticellate, not flaky. Leaves somewhat dispersed, brittle when dry, lower surface not pale, papillose only in H. iryaghedhi, dots present or absent; reticulation lax. Inflorescences paniculate, usually branched several times (from older wood in H. sabulosa); flowers numerous, all in about the same stage of development, solitary or clustered (in H. iryaghedhi the male with flowers sessile in dense flower heads); basal cataphylls caducous; bracts small or large, caducous. Flowers small, mostly short-pedicelled, at base articulated or not, bracteole absent. Male flower with perianth ± globose or cup-shaped, leathery, inside glabrous, yellowish; buds depressed-globose, (transversely) ellipsoid, reniform or clavate, laterally compressed or not, cleft to variable depths, lobes 2-4, not spread at anthesis; androecium sessile or with short narrow androphore, glabrous, synandrium variously shaped (cup-shaped, globose, ellipsoid, cylindrical or trigonous), laterally compressed or not; anthers 2-25, largely or entirely connate into a central column hollowed to different depths at apex; anthers straight, curved, or inflexed into the apical cavity to variable depths. Female flowers slightly larger than male, globose to ovoid-ellipsoid, ovary glabrous or pubescent, style absent, stigma small, deeply 2-lobed (more in H. iryaghedhi). Infructescences branched, few to many-fruited. Fruits globose or ellipsoid, 1-8 cm. long, pericarp leathery or somewhat fleshy, with or without lenticel-like tubercles, glabrous or pubescent, perianth sometimes persistent; aril entire or only shallowly lobed; seeds rarely globose, not variegated; albumen ruminated, with fatty oil but no starch; cotyledons connate at base.

Sri Lanka, N.E. India and S. China through Malesia and S.E. Asia to the Caroline and Solomon Islands to the east, including N. Australia; absent from the Lesser Sunda Islands.

Horsfieldia is a genus of evergreen trees. The genus consists of about 100 species and is distributed across South Asia, from India to the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Some species are used for timber. Species in the genus sometimes contain alkaloids, including horsfiline, which has analgesic effects.