Citharexylum spinosum Illustration Credit: Shaukat

Shrubs or trees with opposite-decussate, ternate or verticillate leaves, usually with a pair of glands at the base of lamina. Spicate racemes terminal or axillary. Flowers small, white or yellow. Calyx tubular or cyathiform, 5-toothed or lobed to truncate. Corolla-tube infundibuliform or cylindrical with 5, patent lobes. Stamens 5, lower 2 forming staminodes, not exserted. Ovary 2-carpellary, perfectly or imperfectly 4-loculed, with 1 ovule in each locule; style terminal with 2-fid stigma. Fruit a fleshy drupe, partly enclosed by enlarged, persistent calyx.

About 115 species, mainly distributed from Southern United States to Argentina and Uruguay; represented by a single, cultivated species, in Pakistan.

Lower Taxon

• Citharexylum spinosum Linn.