Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Shrubs or small trees without thorns.

Stems:

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Midrib prominent, occasionally with domatia in the axils of the midrib and lateral veins. Petiolate. Stipules small, quickly deciduous.

Flowers: Flowers in axillary cymes usually shorter than leaves. Flowers bisexual (perfect) or occasionally also with unisexual flowers (and then plants polygamodioecious), actinomorphic. Calyx 4–5(–8)-lobed, the lobes erect, triangular, persistent. Corolla of 4–5 petals, erect, similar to calyx lobes in shape and size or sometimes somewhat larger, sometimes ciliate, ± keeled. Stamens 4–5(–8), inserted on margin of nectary disk. Ovary superior, partly embedded in the disk, usually 2-celled or 4-celled at base, placentation basal; ovules 2 per cell.

Fruit: Globose berry. Seeds 2–4; subglobose; with a thin aril; seed coat thick; crustaceous; with transverse ridges or tuberculate.

Ploidy:

Habitat:

Elevation Range: