Undershrubs, shrubs, or trees with watery juice. Leaves simple, alternate, glabrous,
coriaceous; stipules present. Inflorescence terminal, axillary, or on short racemose.
cymose, compound or thyrsoid panicles, bracteate. Flowers one to many, regular,
bisexual, conspicuous; pedicels articulate. Sepals 4 -
5, free, imbricate, persistent. Petals
4 -
10, free, deciduous, imbricate. Stamens 4 to many, inserted at base of or on disc;
filaments usually persistent; anthers basifixed, dehiscing by apical pores or longitudinally. Ovary deeply lobed; carpels 2 -
10, superior, free with 1 ovule or fused with 2 to
many ovules per carpel; styles simple, subulate, straight or incurved; stigma simple,
terminal, free or fused. Fruits drupes, berries or septicidal capsules; seeds solitary to
numerous with or without endosperm.
Tropics and subtropics, mostly in Africa and Asia, 40 genera and 600 species; 3
genera and 7 species in India.
Literature.
KANIS(1968). A revision of the Ochnaceae of Indo-Pacific area. Blumea 16(1): 1 - 82.
KEY TO THE GENERA
1a. Flowers in conferted cymose clusters of umbelloid appearance; anthers opening with 2 longitudinal
slits
