Habit: Shrub, erect to mounded; generally dioecious.
Leaf: simple, opposite or clustered, generally deciduous, short-petioled.
Inflorescence: axillary clusters; staminate flowers +- sessile; pistillate flowers pedicelled.
Flower: unisexual [bisexual]; calyx minute, lobes awl-shaped, early-deciduous; corolla 0.
Staminate Flower: stamens (1)4(6); filaments long, free (in California); anthers white [black]; pistil vestigial if present.
Pistillate Flower: stamens 0 or 1--4, reduced, sterile (in California); ovules 2 per chamber; style short, slender; stigma head-shaped or 2-lobed.
Fruit: drupe.
Species In Genus: +- 12 species: America.
Etymology: (André Robert Forestier, French physician, teacher, 1736--1812)
Jepson eFlora Author: Family description, key to genera by Thomas J. Rosatti; treatment of genera by James Henrickson
Reference: Nesom 2009 Lundellia 12:8--14
Unabridged Reference: Brooks 1977 Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ of Alabama, University StationIndex of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
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