Common Name: BUCKTHORN FAMILY
Habit: [Perennial herb] shrub, tree, generally erect, often thorny. Leaf: simple, generally alternate, often clustered on short-shoots; stipules generally present, occasionally modified into spines; generally petioled; blade pinnate-veined or 1--5-ribbed from base. Inflorescence: cyme, panicle, umbel, or flowers 1 or clustered in axils or on short-shoots. Flower: generally bisexual, radial; hypanthium subtending, surrounding, or partly fused to ovary; sepals 4--5; petals 0, 4--5, generally clawed; stamens 0, 4--5, alternate sepals, attached to hypanthium top, each generally fitting into a petal concavity; disk (0 or) between stamens, ovary, thin to fleshy, entire or lobed, free from ovary, adherent or fused to hypanthium; ovary superior or +- inferior, chambers [1]2--4, 1--2-ovuled, style 1, stigma entire or 2--3-lobed. Fruit: capsule, drupe.
Genera In Family: 50--52 genera, 950 species: especially tropics, subtropics some cultivated (Ceanothus; Frangula; Rhamnus; Ziziphus).
eFlora Treatment Author: John O. Sawyer, Jr., except as noted
Scientific Editor: Steve Boyd, Thomas J. Rosatti.

Habit: Shrub. Stem: branches dense, opposite, rigid, green; twigs spreading, jointed at base, thorn-tipped, glabrous to puberulent. Leaf: opposite, clustered in axils or not, early-deciduous; stipules +- triangular, black, shiny; blade entire, 1--3-ribbed from base. Inflorescence: small axillary clusters; pedicel generally white to green-white. Flower: hypanthium bowl-shaped, generally white to green-white; sepals 5, triangular, persistent; petals 5, spoon-shaped, white; stamens 5; disk fused to hypanthium, 5-angled, fleshy, generally white to green-white; ovary superior, chambers 3, 1-ovuled, stigma 3-lobed. Fruit: capsule, spheric, explosively dehiscent.
Species In Genus: 2 species: California, Texas, Mexico. Etymology: (Adolphe T. Brongniart, student of Rhamnaceae, 1801--1876)