RHAMNACEAE  

Shrubs, unarmed or spiny. Leaves opposite, subopposite or approximating in pairs, shortly petioled, entire or toothed; stipules minute, deciduous. Flowers in simple, axillary umbels, slightly longer than petioles. Calyx 5-lobed, somewhat fleshy; tube urceolate or campanulate; lobes keeled on inner face. Petals 5, shorter than calyx, shortly clawed. Disc inconspicuous, lining calyx tube. Stamens 5, subequalling petals. Ovary superior, 2- or 4-locular. Fruit an ovoid or subglobose, dry or somewhat fleshy drupe. Seeds usually solitary.

Shrublets, shrubs, rarely small trees. Leaves alternate, often ericoid or ovate to lanceolate, with revolute margins; stipules rarely present. Flowers solitary, axillary or in spikes, racemes, or heads. Calyx 5-lobed; lobes ovate to linear, often with a prominent median nerve or keel on inner face; tube variably expanded, usually with some type of pubescence. Disc usually fused with calyx tube, variable. Petals 5, rarely fewer or absent, small, clawed. Stamens 5, inserted below petals; filaments short; anthers 1- or 2-thecous. Ovary inferior, 3-locular; style minutely 3-lobed. Fruit mostly capsular, crowned with persistent base of calyx. Seeds +/- 3-sided, smooth.

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves opposite or subopposite, shortly petiolate; stipules large, interpetiolar. Flowers in axillary, pedunculate cymes or fascicles. Sepals 5. Petals 5, cucullate. Stamens 5, inserted under margin of disc. Disc thick, with free margin. Ovary half-inferior, 3-locular; style 3-lobed. Fruit a capsule, 3-lobed, tardily loculicidally dehiscent.

Evergreen scandent shrubs to lax trees; branchlets terete, often reduced to axillary spines. Leaves alternate, rarely subopposite, petiolate; eglandular, elliptic to elliptic-ovate; stipules conspicuous. Flowers 5-merous, borne in cymose, few-flowered inflorescences; bracts minute, deltoid, caducous; receptacle hemispherical with calyx and androecium borne at rim. Sepals valvate in bud, deltoid, spreading. Petals 0. Stamens erect; anthers incurved, 2-thecous, dorsifixed, versatile. Disc thick and fleshy. Ovary 3-locular, entirely immersed in and adnate to disc and receptacle; ovules subsessile on basal placentas, 1 per locule; styles 3, free, tapering off terminally; stigma indistinct. Fruit capsular, faintly 3-coccous with stipe and basal part of capsule (receptacle) persistent. Seeds 1 per locule, oblong-obovate; testa hard and shiny; embryo flat, with fleshy, broadly elliptical cotyledons; endosperm abundant. x = 8 (polyploidy).