Source:
SSA
Description:
Evergreen shrubs, usually spiny; buds small, softly hairy. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, shortly petiolate; stipules minute, caducous. Inflorescence a compound corymb. Flowers bisexual, small. Calyx: tube short; lobes 5, triangular. Petals suborbicular, often with a notched apex, white or creamy. Stamens 20; anthers yellow. Ovary half-inferior; carpels 5, free on central axis, joined on dorsal side for +/- half their length to calyx tube; ovules 2 per carpel; styles free. Fruit small, globose, red, orange or yellow berries, crowned by persistent calyx lobes; pyrenes 5. x= 17.
Distribution:
Species +/- 9, native of SE Europe, Caucasia, NW Iran and China; cultivated for its ornamental berries; 3 naturalised in sthn Afr., Gauteng, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.
Classification:
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