Family: Rhamnaceae
Rhamnus
Citation:
L., Sp. Pl. 193 (1753).
Derivation: Greco-Latin rhamnos, some thorny shrub.
Synonymy: Not Applicable Common name: None
Description:
Largely glabrous shrubs or small trees; leaves evergreen (in S.Aust.), alternate, petiolate, flat, pinnately nerved, green above and below.
Flowers small, pedicellate in raceme-like axillary inflorescences, usually unisexual, plants apparently monoecious (Black (1952) says dioecious); buds broad-ellipsoid; bracts persistent; sepals 4 or 5, spreading, caducous; petals 0 (in S.Aust.); stamens 5; filaments much longer than the anthers, inflexed behind the anthers; floral tube not adnate to the ovary; ovary superior, 2-4-celled, glabrous; disk 0; style 2- or 3-branched, the branches clavate.
Fruit a drupe containing 2-4 nutlets. At least a 100 species, cosmopolitan.
Biology:
No text
Author:
Prepared by J.P. Jessop
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