Reptonia A. DC.
Small spiny trees or large shrubs, up to 10 m high. Branches sericeous, white pubescent. Spines strong, often when strudy with leaves and flowers. Leaves spathulate-elliptic, coriaceous, entire, glabrous above, with sericeous indumentum or glabrous below, petiolate, venation obscure. Inflorescence axillary, sessile in clusters. Flower bisexual, pedicellate. Calyx 5-lobed, lobes imbricate, basally joined, broadly ovate, sericeous indumentum. Corolla 5-lobed, subcampanulate, corolla tube short, yellow; lobes oblong-ovate, obtuse, con torted-imbricate. Stamens 5, filaments linear, exceeding the petals; anthers extrorse; staminodes 5, alternating with stamens, filiform with flattened base. Ovary globose, hairy, unilocular, 5-ovuled, placentation basal. Style cylindrical; stigma minute. Fruit a berry, fleshy, globose, 1-seeded. Seed almost globular; endosperm ruminate. Embryo horizontal, curved.
A monotypic genus distributed in N.W. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Oman, N. Somalia, S. Ethiopia and Djibouti. It occurs in dry Olea and Juniperus forest and in evergreen scrub. This genus was formerly included in Myrsinaceae, but Radlkofer kept it under Sapotaceae. It differs from the other members of Sapotaceae by having no latex and larger stamens.
