Common Name: STAFF-TREE FAMILY
Habit: Shrub (climbing or not), tree, thorny or not, generally glabrous. Leaf: simple, opposite or alternate, deciduous to persistent, subsessile or petioled; veins pinnate. Inflorescence: cluster, cyme, raceme, panicle, or 1-flowered, axillary or terminal, bracted. Flower: generally bisexual, radial, small; hypanthium +- cup-shaped; sepals 4--5; petals (0)4--5, free; stamens 4--5, alternate petals, attached below or to rim of disk; ovary superior or +- embedded in disk, 2--5-chambered, placentas axile or basal, style generally 1, short, stigma +- head-like, 2--5-lobed. Fruit: capsule, winged achene, berry, drupe, or nutlet, often 1-chambered. Seed: generally 1 per chamber, arilled.
Genera In Family: 50 genera, 800 species: worldwide, especially southeastern Asia; some ornamental (Celastrus, Euonymus, Maytenus, Paxistima).
eFlora Treatment Author: Michael A. Vincent & Barry A. Prigge
Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.

Habit: Shrub, prostrate to ascending. Stem: twig 4-angled, with corky ridges. Leaf: opposite, evergreen, leathery, finely toothed. Inflorescence: axillary, 1--3-flowered. Flower: parts in 4s; petals +- white to red-brown; disk fused to hypanthium, +- square, fleshy; stamens short, attached to disk margin; ovary embedded in disk, stigma lobes 2, obscure. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal, 2-valved. Seed: shiny, dark brown to black; aril surrounding base and 1 side of seed, white, thin, fringed.
Etymology: (Greek: thick stigma, possibly)