Common Name: OLIVE FAMILY Habit: Perennial herb to tree [vine], hairs 0 or peltate or not; rarely dioecious. Leaf: simple to odd-pinnately compound, alternate or generally opposite, deciduous or evergreen; stipules 0. Inflorescence: various; flowers >= 1. Flower: generally bisexual, generally radial; calyx generally minute (0), tube cup-shaped, teeth or lobes 4--15; petals (0)4--6(8), generally fused; nectar disk often present; stamens (0)2(4--5), epipetalous; pistil 1, ovary superior, chambers 2, each 2--4 ovuled, placenta axile, style 1, stigma generally 2-lobed. Fruit: drupe, capsule, or winged achene. Seed: 1 per chamber. Genera In Family: +- 25 genera, 900 species: +- worldwide; some cultivated for ornament (Forsythia; Jasminum, jasmine; Ligustrum, privet; Syringa, lilac) or food (Olea, olive). eFlora Treatment Author: Family description, key to genera by Thomas J. Rosatti; treatment of genera by James Henrickson, except as noted Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin.
Habit: Shrub, dense, mounded, 2--5(6) dm. Stem: many from generally short, stout trunk, spreading to ascending, round in ×-section, densely puberulent, terminating in thorns, these often appearing forked at ends of major branches. Leaf: alternate (leaf-like bracts appearing clustered on short flower shoots), sessile, (2)4--10(16) mm, linear-oblanceolate to oblanceolate, 3-cleft to middle, densely puberulent, generally only present at flower. Inflorescence: axillary, compact cluster. Flower: calyx puberulent, lobes (4)5--6(8), (1.8)2--4(5) mm, linear; corolla white tinged red or purple, red in bud, lobes 4--5(6), obovate. Fruit: each lobe +- indehiscent, opening irregularly, (5)6.3--7.9(9) mm, +- glabrous to slightly scabrous. Seed: generally 2; (5)5.7--7.2(8) mm, elliptic to obovate in outline, planoconvex to lenticular in ×-section, seed coat appearing smooth, shiny.
Menodora spinescens A. Gray var. spinescens
NATIVE Flower: unisexual or bisexual, calyx tube in flower generally < 1.4 mm; filaments < 1 mm, anthers generally appearing sessile; bisexual flowers in showier, denser inflorescence, flowers larger. Pistillate Flower: corolla tube (2.5)2.6--3.7(3.8) mm, lobes (1)1.2--2.2; anthers green, < 1 mm, included, separate; stigma well exserted, head-like or 2-lobed. Bisexual Flower: corolla tube (4)4.3--5.1(5.2) mm, lobes (1.9)2--2.9(3) mm; filaments 0.5--2 mm, anthers 2 mm, yellow, 1/2-exserted; stigma exserted, exceeding anthers, 2-forked. Ecology: Rocky desert hillsides, canyons; Elevation: 690--2000(2300) m. Bioregional Distribution: SnBr (n slope), s SNE, n&e DMoj exc DMtns; Distribution Outside California: southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, northwestern Arizona. Flowering Time: Apr--May Jepson eFlora Author: Timothy Chumley Reference: Chumley 2007 Ph.D. Dissertation, Univ Texas, Austin Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Menodora spinescens var. mohavensis Next taxon: Olea
Citation for this treatment: Timothy Chumley 2012, Menodora spinescens var. spinescens, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=72864, accessed on April 24, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 24, 2024.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
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