Description:

• Trees, shrubs, undershrubs, rarely scandent, usually dioecious
• Leaves alternate, occasionally opposite or whorled, simple, entire, coriaceous; stipules 0
• Flowers regular, usually unisexual, sometimes bisexual, 3-8-merous, in axillary cymes, racemes, panicles, or solitary; bracts usually present
• Calyx usually divided almost to base, occasionally with distinct, truncate or shortly toothed tube, persistent and often accrescent in fruit
• Corolla usually with a short tube and lobes contorted in bud, deciduous
• Stamens 3 or more in 1 or 2 whorls, arising from base of corolla or on tube, sometimes hypogynous; filaments free or connate at base, in pairs or groups, shorter than basifixed anthers
• Ovary superior, on a glabrous or fringed disc, 2-16-locular, with axile placentation and 1 or 2 pendulous ovules in each locule; styles 1-3, simple or with 2-5 branches
• Fruit a berry, with 1-several seeds, becoming dry and occasionally dehiscing slowly
• Seeds globose or ellipsoid; embryo straight; endosperm usually copious and bony

Nomenclature:

• Ebenaceae
  • Hiern: 444 (1906)
  • De Winter: 54 (1963)
  • De Winter et al.: 107 (1967)
  • White: 248 (1983)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global: Genera 2, species ± 500, throughout tropics and subtropics of both hemispheres, most species in the Indo-Pacific region but centre of variation in Africa (including Madagascar); represented in Africa in most terrestrial vegetation types below 2000 m except in the driest areas
• Southern Africa: Genera 2, species 37

References:

• DE WINTER, B. 1963. Ebenaceae. Flora of southern Africa 26
• DE WINTER, B., WHITE, F. FRIEDRICH-HOLZHAMMER, M. & ROESSLER, H. 1967. Ebenaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 107
• HIERN, W.P. 1906. Ebenaceae. Flora capensis 4,1
• WHITE, F. 1983. Ebenaceae. Flora zambesiaca 7,1

Resources:

• Key to Ebenaceae genera

• Ebenaceae genera: