Myrsinaceae

Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely pseudo-verticillate or pseudo-opposite, entire, with small dots and lines (schizogenic cavities). Stipules wanting. Inflorescence various, terminal or axillary. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, small, actinomorphic (3—)4—5(—6)-merous. Sepals free or more or less united, valvate, usually glandulardotted, persistent. Petals usually united, mostly rotate or salverform, rarely tubular. Stamens as many as the petals and epipetalous; filaments short and adnate to the corolla or rarely free; anthers 2-celled, with longitudinal, introrse dehiscence. Ovary superior or more or less inferior, 1-locular, sessile; style 1, short or wanting; stigma various. Ovules few to numerous, anatropous or amphitropous, usually at least partly immersed in the central placenta. Fruit a berry or a drupe with stony endocarp, 1-seeded. Seed with copious endosperm. Embryo enclosed in the fleshy or horny endosperm. About 1000 species in c. 35 genera in the tropics and subtropics.