Murraya Koenig ex L.,nom. cons.

Shrubs or small trees, unarmed, evergreen or deciduous. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate or very rarely unifoliolate; leaflets alternate, often asymmetric. Inflorescences axillary and/or terminal, few to many flowered panicles. Flowers medium to large, cylindric or long ovoid in buds. Sepals 5, united at base, ovate or lanceolate, glandular. Petals 5, imbricate, linear or ovate-lanceolate, greenish-white to pure white, glandular. Stamens 10, alternately long and short, free; filaments slender or sometimes dilated below; anthers small, ovoid or ellipsoid. Disk annular, lobulate or cylindrical, short. Ovary seated on a distinct gynophore, 2 - 5-locular, each locule with 2 or rarely 1 ovule; style slender, caducous; stigma capitate. Fruits baccate, ovoid-ellipsoid to subglobose, with thin, glandular pericarp, reddish or black when ripe, 2 - 5-locular, 1 to few seeded; seeds embedded in a white mucilaginous pulp; cotyledons green, plano-convex.

Tropical and subtropical regions of Sri Lanka, India, S. China to S.E. Asia, Malesia and east to New Guinea, N.E. Australia and New Caledonia; ca 11 species, 2 in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Leaves with 15 - 27 leaflets; inflorescences with very numerous flowers (up to 60); berries subglobose, purplish to black when ripe

1. Murraya koenigii

b. Leaves with 7 leaflets; inflorescences with only 3 - 6 flowers; berries ovoid-ellipsoid, reddish when ripe

2. Murraya paniculata

List of Lower Taxa