Home Flora of Missouri
Home
Name Search
Families
Volumes
!!Celastraceae R. Br. Search in IPNISearch in NYBG Virtual HerbariumAfrican Plants, Senckenberg Photo GallerySearch in Flora do Brasil 2020Search in Reflora - Virtual HerbariumSearch in Living Collections Decrease font Increase font Restore font
 

Publicado en: A Voyage to Terra Australis 2: 554. 1814. (19 Jul 1814) (Voy. Terra Austral.) Name publication detail
 

Datos del Proyecto Nombre (Last Modified On 8/11/2017)
Aceptación : Accepted
Datos del Proyecto     (Last Modified On 8/10/2009)

 

Export To PDF Export To Word

CELASTRACEAE (Staff-Tree Family)

(Brizicky, 1964b)

Contributed by David J. Bogler

Plants trees, shrubs, or lianas, glabrous or nearly so, sometimes incompletely or completely dioecious, occasionally with milky sap. Leaves alternate or opposite, simple, pinnately veined, the margins entire or bluntly toothed, sometimes partially or fully evergreen. Stipules absent or small, scalelike, and shed early. Inflorescences axillary or terminal clusters (sometimes appearing as short racemes or small panicles in Celastrus). Flowers perfect or imperfect, actinomorphic, hypogynous or perigynous, small, the stalks jointed. Sepals 4 or 5, small, usually fused toward the base. Petals 4 or 5, separate. Stamens 4 or 5, opposite the sepals, the filaments short, usually distinct, the short, broad anthers attached at or near the base. A nectar disk is present between the stamens and ovary, usually conspicuous, the petals and stamens sometimes appearing attached to the disk. Pistil of 2–5 fused carpels, the ovary superior or appearing partially inferior (the basal portion sometimes appearing sunken into the disk), 1–5-locular, the ovules 2 to several per locule, the placentation axile. Style 1, the stigma capitate or 3-lobed. Fruits capsules (drupes or berries elsewhere), sometimes strongly lobed, dehiscent longitudinally by 3–5 valves. Seeds 3–5 (more elsewhere), covered by a brightly colored, red or orange, fleshy aril. Fifty-five to 90 genera, 850–1,300 species, nearly worldwide, but most diverse in tropical and subtropical regions.

The Celastraceae are of limited economic importance, although a number of species are cultivated as ornamentals, and some taxa are considered invasive exotics. Euonymus is used in Chinese herbal medicine. The leaves of Catha edulis (Vahl) Endl., called khat, are chewed or brewed into tea for their stimulant effect in East Africa and the Middle East.

 

Export To PDF Export To Word Export To SDD
Switch to indented key format
1 1. Leaves alternate; plants lianas with twining stems ... 1. CELASTRUS

Celastrus
2 1. Leaves opposite; plants shrubs or small trees, or if lianas then the stems not twining (adhering to substrate by modified roots) ... 2. EUONYMUS Euonymus
 
 
© 2024 Missouri Botanical Garden - 4344 Shaw Boulevard - Saint Louis, Missouri 63110