Description: Shrubs with milky latex.
Leaves opposite or in whorls of 3–6.
Calyx lobes ovate; glands absent. Corolla tube, cylindrical, hairy inside; lobes broad, contorted in bud, throat without scales. Stamens enclosed in corolla tube, inserted high in the tube on very short filaments, glabrous, free from stigma; anthers with a short apical appendage. Ovary of 2 distinct carpels; style single, slender, the style head ovoid.
Fruit a drupe, single or in pairs; either 1-seeded by abortion or 2–5-seeded and moniliform with each article 1-seeded.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 80 spp., Madag., Indomalesia, Aust. Aust.: 9 spp. (8 spp. endemic), all States.
Text by G. J. Harden & J. B. Williams
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaf apex rounded or slightly emarginate, not mucronate or spinose; inflorescences usually condensed into a many flowered head; fruit blue-black; Lord Howe Island | Alyxia squamulosa |
| Leaf apex obtuse, retuse, acute or attenuate, usually at least slightly mucronate, or distinctly spinose, occasionally blunt; inflorescence of 2–8 flowers or flowers solitary; fruit red or orange; mainland Australia or Lord Howe Island | 2 |
| 2 | Leaves usually in whorls of 3–6, apex acute or acuminate, spinose; rainforest species, coastal districts north of Nowra or Lord Howe Island | Alyxia ruscifolia |
| Leaves mostly opposite, apex mucronate or blunt, not spinose; coastal headland species, south of Nowra
Back to 1 | Alyxia buxifolia |
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