Ebenaceae
Diospyros
Kingdom: Plantae Rank: Genus Parent: Ebenaceae Status: Valid
Morphological Description
Diagnosis: Trees and shrubs. Bark often thin, brittle, and defoliating in small plates or strips, gray, brown to blackish, the bark slash exposing yellow wood surrounded by ring of black, interior bark. Latex absent. Pubescence often present on stems, leaves, inflorescences, and fruits. Stems gray to brown, the inner bark black. Stipules absent. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral or distichous around the stem; the lamina entire, the margins often revolute, often with inconspicuous glands on abaxial surface near base or apex. Inflorescences axillary or ramiflorous cymes, loosely to densely clustered, or the flowers sometimes solitary. Flowers actinomorphic, usually unisexual, rarely bisexual; the sepals connate toward the base, typically persistent subtending the fruit; the petals connate in a tube or only at base. Fruit a berry, subtended by persistent calyx. Seeds 1-12 per fruit, the endosperm indurate, sometimes ruminate.