Celastraceae

Abstract

Monoecious, andromonoecious, dioecious, gynodioecious, or polygamous, erect or scandent trees, shrubs, lianas with quickly-deciduous scales, without tendrils, or annual or perennial herbs with erect or prostrate stems, rarely suffrutices, rhizomatous shrubs, ericoid subshrubs, or epiphytic shrubs, glabrous or glabrescent, rarely puberulent, densely pilose, or hirsute and stellate pubescent, often with elastic threads in soft tissues that are evident when broken, unarmed or with thorns, rarely with stems terminating in sharp points, rarely with glandular stems, rarely with buttressed trunks. Leaves simple, alternate, opposite, or subopposite, rarely whorled, subverticillate, or irregularly scattered, fasciculate on short shoots, or opposite on mature branches and alternate on juvenile branches, petiolate or rarely sessile, rarely geniculate, blade laminar, rarely needle- or scalelike, venation pinnate, rarely acrodromous, secondary veins reticulate or rarely distinct crossbars, rarely with abaxial domatia in axils or larger veins, margins entire, crenate, serrate, dentate, spinose, glandular-toothed, spinosedentate, rarely notched; stipules small and caducous, rarely 0. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, rarely epiphyllous or cauliflorous, thyrsoid, cymose, fasciculate, or flowers solitary, rarely paniculate, umbellate-cymose, umbellate, racemose, or in spikes. Flowers actinomorphic, rarely ±; zygomorphic with 4 of 5 petals arched, bisexual or unisexual, rarely perigynous with short or cupular hypanthium, perianth (3)4–5(6)-merous, sepals and petals free, rarely petals medially connate; disk intrastaminal, stamens on disk, or extrastaminal, annular, margins upturned, pulvinate, or cupular, fleshy or membranous, sometimes indistinct or 0, continuous, rarely discontinuous, entire, lobed, or angular, rarely lacerate or irregularly lobed; stamens (2)3–5, rarely numerous, rarely 3 long and 2 short, rarely alternating with staminodes, staminodial or 0 in female flowers, alternate with petals when stamen number equals petal number, anthers (1)2-celled, basifixed to dorsifixed, sometimes versatile, dehiscing longitudinally, obliquely, or transversely, introrse, latrorse, or extrorse, rarely apical, connective sometimes apiculate, rarely pustular, with bilobed extension, or tipped by white gland, androgynophore occasionally +; ovary superior to half-inferior, often partially immersed in disk, present as pistillode or essentially absent in male flowers, completely or incompletely (1)2–5(10)-Jocular, rarely each locule horizontally divided into 1-ovulate locelli, placentation axile, rarely intruded parietal or basal, ovules erect, axile, or pendulous, 1–12(-numerous) per locule; style terminal, simple, short to 0, stigma simple or lobed, rarely ovary with stigmatic lines on each carpel on margin of an apical hollow with style-like central column arising from base of hollow. Fruit a loculicidally and/or septicidally dehiscent capsule, rarely beaked, schizocarp of 2–5 indehiscent mericarps, drupe, berry, or samara with a single apical wing, 3–5 lateral wings, or a single surrounding wing, rarely an indehiscent capsule or nut with lateral style, pericarp woody, bony, coriaceous, fleshy, or chartaceous, rarely fibrous, capsules smooth, angular, deeply lobed, transversely flattened and lobed to base, or rarely lobed ± halfway to base or entirely connate, rarely echinate, laterally winged, with lateral or oblique horn-like outgrowths, or flattened along each locule. Seeds 1-numerous, smooth or occasionally furrowed, with unbranched or occasionally branched raphe, albuminous or exalbuminous, sometimes winged, wing membranous, basal, sometimes reduced to narrow stipe, apical, or surrounding seed, exarillate or aril basal to completely enveloping seed, aril membranous, fleshy, rarely with basal or apical filamentous extensions, or mucilaginous.