Lawsonia

Evergreen, glabrous shrubs or small trees; young branches 4-angular, old ones terete, rigid and often spinescent. Leaves decussate, elliptic to oblanceolate, entire. Flowers bisexual, 4-merous, in lax leafy terminal panicles. Calyx turbinate with tube short; lobes spreading and broadly ovate; appendages absent. Petals broadly ovate, cordate at base, very much corrugated in bud, slightly clawed, yellowish. Stamens exserted, 4 opposite sepals or often 8 in pairs also opposite sepals or rarely 9-12 ternate; filaments filiform-subulate; anthers broadly oblong. Ovary sessile, subglobose, 2-4-locular; style thick, continuous with placentas, persistent, a little longer than stamens; stigma capitate. Fruit globose, indehiscent or disrupting irregularly. Seeds many, thick, 4-sided; cotyledons flat.