Shrubs or trees, monoecious or dioecious, spinescent; stems and thick branches usually with knobs
Leaves alternate, pinnate; leaflets 3-9-jugate, with immersed glands
Flowers unisexual, in panicles
Calyx of 4 small, ciliate sepals
Petals 4, free
Male flowers: stamens 4, opposite sepals; ovary rudimentary
Female flowers: staminodes rudimentary or 0; ovary obliquely obovate, with the 2 sutures distinct, unilocular, with 2 apical ovules, with immersed glands; style simple, shorter than ovary and obliquely inserted; stigma capitate
Fruit a globose capsule
x = 17 (10, 11, 16, 18) (high polyploidy, B-chromosomes)
Nomenclature:
Zanthoxylum L.
Linnaeus: 270 (1753)
Fagara L.
Linnaeus: 897 (1759)
Mendonça: 183 (1963)
Xanthoxylon, Zanthoxylon and Xanthoxylum are incorrect spellings
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 250, Africa to East Indies and America
Southern Africa: Species 6, widely distributed
References:
LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
LINNAEUS, C. 1759. Systema naturae, edn 10. Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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