Back to Endemics list

These are bushes or trees with smooth trunks that bear simple, alternate leaves of entire margins and with intrapetiolate stipules.  Flowers are axilliary, solitary or fasciculate and hermaphrodite.  There are 5 valvate sepals that are fused at the base and 5 imbricate or free petals that are deciduous. 10 stamens are present that fuse at the base to give a rather urceolate tube.  The ovary is syncarpous, with 3 to 4 locules amongst which only one is fertile and bears 1 or 2 hanging ovules.  There are 3-4 styles that may be free or more or less fused in some cases. The fruit exists in the form of a drupe, in which albumen is abundant and the embryo upright. 

Bushes or small trees with branches mostly repressed at the extremities.  The leaves are simple, alternate with entire margins and intrapetiolate persistent stipules.  Scales analogous to the stipules can also appear on the branches independently of the leaves.  Flowers are solitary or fasciculate.  There are 5-6 petals that are free and more or less fleshy and that are white or cream in colour.  The ovary has three chambers of which only one is fertile and which contains one hanging axile ovule.  There are three styles that may be free or more or less fused and that may be longer than the 10 stamens present depending on the type of flower.  The drupe is red in colour with only one seed. Albumen is virtually absent and the cotyledons make up most of the grain’s volume. 
 
Of the 190 species in this genus, only Erythroxulum macrocarpum is endemic to Mauritius.