Family: Araliaceae
Kingdom: Plantae Rank: Family Parent: Apiales Status: Valid
Common Names:
- Ginseng Family - English, United States of America
Vegetative Morphology
Habit: Shrubs or trees, rarely hemiepiphytes.
Leaves: Leaves simple, bipinnately or pinnately compound, alternate; petioles often variable in size, the lamina often aromatic when crushed.
Stipules: Stipules large, persistent.
Reproductive Morphology
Inflorescence: Inflorescence usually an umbel, sometimes a panicle or raceme, axillary or terminal.
Flowers: Flowers small; sepals small or reduced with five small teeth; petals free to partially fused; stamens usually same number as petals; ovary inferior, the styles free at apex, swollen at base to form stylopodium, placentation axile.
Fruit: Fruit a berry or drupe.
Seeds: Seeds one to many per fruit.
Other
Notes: Cosmopolitan family of temperate and tropical regions.