Description: Trees or shrubs, evergreen or deciduous, often armed with stout axillary spines.
Leaves alternate or clustered, entire to toothed; petiolate; stipules absent.
Flowers usually unisexual, female flowers often solitary or in few-flowered clusters, males in few-flowered clusters. Calyx 2–7-lobed. Petals absent. Stamens 10–many. Ovary 5–7-lobed, 1-locular.
Fruit a berry.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 20 species, mostly Africa, Sri Lanka & New Guinea. Australia: 1 species (naturalised).
Dovyalis was previously placed in the, now synonymised, family Flacourtiaceae.
Text by G.J. Harden, Flora of New South Wales Vol. 1: 430-432 (1990), in Flacourtiaceae Taxon concept: Australian Plant Census (accessed May 2017)
One species in NSW: Dovyalis caffra |
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