Desmos Genus

Desmos is a genus of flowering plants in the custard apple family, Annonaceae, placed in the order Magnoliales. The genus is native to a broad swath of tropical and subtropical Asia and northern Australia, occurring across the Indian subcontinent (Assam, Bangladesh, the eastern Himalaya, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka), southern and southeastern China (including Hainan), Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam), the Malesian region (Borneo, Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Peninsular Malaysia, the Nicobar Islands, the Philippines, Sulawesi, and Sumatra), and northern Australia (the Northern Territory and Queensland).

Members of the genus are woody plants of varied habit, growing as vines, shrubs, or occasionally small trees. Their flowers are mostly borne singly at the branch tips, though in some species they arise from the leaf axils instead. The flowers are bisexual, each with 3 sepals and 6 petals arranged in two whorls of three, along with numerous stamens and numerous carpels — a floral structure typical of early-diverging flowering-plant lineages such as Annonaceae. The fruits are apocarpous, meaning each flower produces a cluster of separate fruitlets attached to a central receptacle rather than a single fused fruit, a hallmark of the custard apple family.

Taxonomic authorities differ slightly on the genus's size: Plants of the World Online and World Flora Online recognized 18 accepted species as of January 2025, while the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy lists 15 descendant taxa. Desmos is accepted as a valid genus in both classifications, within family Annonaceae and order Magnoliales.