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 alternate, rigid; twigs thorn-tipped. Leaf: clustered on short-shoots, deciduous; stipules deciduous; petioles +- 0; blade generally obovate, 1-ribbed from base, entire. Inflorescence: flowers 1 or in clusters on short-shoots. Flower: hypanthium hemispheric, 1--1.5 mm wide; sepals 5, deciduous; petals 0 [5]; stamens 5; disk 0 or thin in early flower; ovary spheric, strong-narrowed at base, chambers 2, each 1-ovuled, stigma entire. Fruit: drupe, stone 1.
Etymology: (A. Condal, Spanish physician, 1745?--1804)
Reference: Christie et al. 2006 Canotia 2:23--46
Unabridged Reference: Johnston 1962 Brittonia 14:332--368