Family Rutaceae.
Habit and leaf form. Small trees, or shrubs; evergreen, or deciduous; bearing essential oils. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves opposite; leathery, or ‘herbaceous’; petiolate; gland-dotted; aromatic; simple. Leaf blades mostly entire; pinnately veined, or one-veined. Leaves without stipules, or with stipules. Stipules when present, intrapetiolar; represented by glands. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Leaf anatomy. Hairs present; complex hairs present. Complex hairs stellate. Stem anatomy. Nodes unilacunar, or tri-lacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite. Entomophilous.
Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose, or racemose. Inflorescences terminal (to short branchlets). Flowers bracteate; pedicel bi- bracteolate; small to medium-sized; fragrant; regular, or somewhat irregular. The floral asymmetry when noticeable, involving the perianth and involving the androecium (not K). Flowers 4 merous; cyclic. Floral receptacle developing a gynophore (associated with the disk), or with neither androphore nor gynophore. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk present (8-lobed); intrastaminal; annular (sometimes one-sided), or of separate members. Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8; 2 -whorled; isomerous. Calyx present; 4; 1 -whorled; gamosepalous; lobed, or entire; imbricate; cupuliform (cup-shaped); regular; with the median member posterior. Corolla 4; 1 -whorled; gamopetalous (the petals, at least in early anthesis are united for most of their length), or polypetalous (rarely); lobes slightly imbricate (tip slightly inflexed); mostly tubular; regular, or unequal but not bilabiate. Androecium 8. Androecial members unbranched, or branched (? by the splitting of simple primordia); free of the perianth; markedly unequal (the antipetalous usually the shorter and more broad at base), or all equal; free of one another, or coherent (? the filaments usually more or less basally connate); 1 - adelphous, or 3–12 - adelphous; 1 -whorled, or 2 -whorled. Stamens 8 (4+4, inserted at base of disc); becoming exserted, or remaining included; diplostemonous; alternisepalous. Filaments glabrous; linear. Anthers dorsifixed, or basifixed (? more or less); versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; tetrasporangiate; unappendaged (abaxial side covered by reddish brown connective). Gynoecium 4 carpelled (variously tomentose). The pistil 4 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous (carpels united at base); semicarpous; superior. Ovary plurilocular; 4 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1, or 3–5; free; apical (styles affixed near apex of inner margin of carpels). Stigmas 4 - lobed; wet type, or dry type; papillate, or non-papillate; Group II type, or Group IV type. Placentation axile. Ovules 2 per locule; pendulous to ascending; epitropous; when two or more per cell, collateral, or superposed, or biseriate; arillate, or non-arillate; anatropous, or hemianatropous.
Fruit and seed features. Fruit fleshy, or non-fleshy; an aggregate, or not an aggregate. The fruiting carpels coalescing into a secondary syncarp, or not coalescing. The fruiting carpel dehiscent, or indehiscent. Fruit a schizocarp. Mericarps 4; comprising cocci. Seeds endospermic, or non-endospermic. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2. Embryo chlorophyllous, or achlorophyllous; straight, or curved, or bent. Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar, or cryptocotylar.
Physiology, biochemistry. Aluminium accumulation not found. Photosynthetic pathway: C3.
Geography, cytology, number of species. A genus of 12 species.