Frangula Mill.

Shrubs or trees, unarmed; bud scales absent, buds hairy. Leaves usually deciduous, sometimes persistent, alternate [rarely opposite], rarely fascicled on short shoots; blade not gland-dotted; pinnately veined, secondary veins nearly straight, parallel. Inflorescences axillary, within foliage, umbels or fascicles, or flowers solitary; peduncles and pedicels not fleshy in fruit. Pedicels present. Flowers bisexual; hypanthium cup-shaped, 1–3 mm wide, usually circumscissile far below sepal bases, rarely not circumscissile; sepals (rarely 4–)5, usually ± erect, sometimes spreading, yellowish to green or white, ovate-triangular, fleshy, keeled adaxially; petals (rarely 4–)5, yellowish, hooded, broadly obovate to obcordate, clawed; nectary thin, lining hypanthium; stamens (rarely 4–)5; ovary superior, (2–)3-locular; style 1. Fruits drupes; stones 2–3(–4), indehiscent but open at base. Seeds obovoid to lenticular, with cartilaginous beak protruding through opening in stone, not furrowed. x = 20–26.