Common Name: OLIVE FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb to tree [vine], hairs 0 or peltate or not; rarely dioecious. Leaf: simple to odd-pinnately compound, alternate or generally opposite, deciduous or evergreen; stipules 0. Inflorescence: various; flowers >= 1. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial; calyx generally minute (0), tube cup-shaped, teeth or lobes 4--15; petals (0)4--6(8), generally fused; nectar disk often present; stamens (0)2(4--5), epipetalous; pistil 1, ovary superior, chambers 2, each 2--4 ovuled, placenta axile, style 1, stigma generally 2-lobed. Fruit: drupe, capsule, or winged achene. Seed: 1 per chamber.
Genera In Family: +- 25 genera, 900 species: +- worldwide; some cultivated for ornament (Forsythia; Jasminum, jasmine; Ligustrum, privet; Syringa, lilac) or food (Olea, olive).
eFlora Treatment Author: Family description, key to genera by Thomas J. Rosatti; treatment of genera by James Henrickson, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin.

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.
Etymology: (André Robert Forestier, French physician, teacher, 1736--1812)
Reference: Nesom 2009 Lundellia 12:8--14
Unabridged Reference: Brooks 1977 Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ of Alabama, University Station