Diospyros

Trees, shrubs or undershrubs, rarely scandent, usually dioecious. Leaves usually alternate, simple, chartaceous to coriaceous. Flowers in axillary, subsessile clusters, cymes, pseudoracemes, or solitary, unisexual or falsely bisexual and functionally male. Calyx (4)5(-7)-lobed, persistent and mostly accrescent, deeply lobed or bladder-shaped and toothed on mouth. Corolla urceolate, 3-5-lobed. Stamens 3-15, in a single or double whorl. Ovary on somewhat fleshy disc, 2-16-locular, with 1 or 2 pendulous ovules in each locule. Fruit a berry with several seeds, rarely only 1, becoming dry and dehiscing slowly. Seeds usually elongate, encircled by a single, thin, +/- straight line; endosperm bony or flinty, occasionally ruminate. x = 15 (high polyploidy, B-chromosomes).