Description: Trees, shrubs [or rarely woody vines].
Leaves alternate, simple, margins entire, toothed [or lobed]; domatia present [or absent]; stipules absent.
Inflorescences terminal, axillary or leaf-opposed; cymose, paniculate or thyrsoid or flowers solitary. Flowers actinomorphic, bisexual and/or unisexual and then plants dioecious or polygamous; mostly 5-merous. Sepals mostly fused into a tube, generally persistent in fruit. Petals free or fused, inflexed at apex. Stamens as many as petals; filaments free, or fused to the corolla tube; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, latrorse or introrse. Disc absent. Ovary superior, mostly 1-locular; ovules usually 2 per loculus; style 1 or 2, or stigma sessile.
Fruit a 1-seeded drupe; seed without aril.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 4 genera, >400 species, widespread in tropical regions.
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Cardiopteridaceae, Order: Aquifoliales)
Text by K.D. Hill
|One genus in NSW: Citronella|