Rawsonia Harv. & Sond.

Shrubs or trees. Leaves persistent, alternate, rather leathery, entire to crenate or spinulose-serrate, petiolate, penninerved, stipulate. Flowers small, white or pinkish, polygamous, i.e. the lower ones in the same inflorescence generally ♂, the upper 1–3 hermaphrodite or ♀, in axillary spike-like racemes. Perianth spirally arranged, consisting of 4–6 free, imbricate, concave and unequal sepals (the outer ones the smallest, the inner ones gradually larger), and 4–8 petals, similar to the sepals but successively larger towards the centre of the flower, and each bearing a fleshy glabrous or hairy scale-like basal appendage. Stamens numerous, biseriate in the hermaphrodite, multiseriate in the ♂ flowers, the inner row arising from the receptacle, the outer row attached at the base of the “scales”; filaments short; anthers subsagittate. Ovary on a concave receptacle, 1-locular, with 3–5 multi-ovulate placentas; style very short; stigmas 3–4(–5), radiate. Fruit berry-like when first ripe, but tardily longitudinally dehiscent when dry into 3–5 sections; pericarp hard. Seeds few, subglobose-angular; aril pergamaceous.