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: Tree, shrub [vine]. Stem: branches alternate, flexible or stiff, +- 2--3-ranked; twigs +- pendent, zigzag. Leaf: clustered on short-shoots or not, deciduous or not, petioled; stipules +- spine-like or not, unequal; blade elliptic to obovate, +- entire to serrate, 1--5-ribbed from base. Inflorescence: cyme or small panicle. Flower: hypanthium surrounding base of ovary; sepals 5; petals 5, < to > sepals; stamens 5; disk thick, +- obscuring ovary in early flower; ovary widely attached at base, chambers 2, each 1-ovuled, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit: drupe, stone 1.
Etymology: (Latin: from Arabic "zizouf," common jujube, Ziziphus zizyphus)
eFlora Treatment Author: John O. Sawyer, Jr.
Reference: Islam & Simmons 2006 Syst Bot 31:826--842
Unabridged Reference: Johnston 1963 Amer J Bot 50:1020--1027