Key to Rhamnus
View taxon page for Rhamnus
(For a list of species in Rhamnus, use the above link.)
Jepson Manual glossary definitions can be seen by moving your cursor over words underlined with dots.
1' Leaves
evergreen; sepals 4–5; fruit red, 2-stoned, or black, 3-stoned
2. Leaf blade 
Expanded portion of a leaf, petal, or other structure, generally flat but sometimes rolled, cylindric, wavy, or cupped.
20–60 mm,
elliptic 
In the shape of a flattened circle or ellipse; wider than linear
or
ovate 
Egg-shaped (i.e., widest below the middle) in two dimensions (i.e., in one plane), as a leaf.
to lance-ovate; sepals 5; fruit black, 3-stoned – CCo (Monterey Co.), SCo (Newport Back Bay), expected elsewhere
..... [R. alaternus] 2' Leaf blade 10–40 mm, elliptic to round; sepals 4; fruit red, 2-stoned (
Rhamnus crocea complex)
3. Leaf blade <= 15 mm, flat abaxially; branches
spreading 
Oriented more or less perpendicularly to the axis of attachment; often, more or less horizontal.
..... R. crocea 3' Leaf blade >= 15 mm, flat to
concave abaxially; branches generally
ascending 
Curving or angling upward from base, or about 30-60 degrees less than vertical or away from axis of attachment.
4' Leaf blade elliptic to round;
shrub; mainland
5. Leaf blade
glabrous or hairy abaxially, glabrous adaxially;
twigs glabrous to finely hairy; CA-FP, DMtns
..... R. ilicifolia
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