shrubs, herbs or trees, perennial leaves opposite or alternate, herbaceous, or leathery, or fleshy, or modified into spines with stipules petiolate, rarely sessil (Augea) Lamina one-veined, or pinnately veined Flowers solitary or in inflorescences, terminal, or axillary, white, yellow, red or blue 5numbered (sometimes 4 or 6)
Distribution
Middle and southeast America, Southafrica, Central Asia, Arab Peninsular, Australia and Indonesia
Floral characters
solitary or in inflorescences, terminal, or axillary, white, yellow, red or blue 5numbered (sometimes 4 or 6), germen with 5 locules, each with one to several ovules
Leaf characters
with stipules, unifoliolate, or bifoliolate, or ternate, or pinnate, hairs present, absent in Augea petiolate (mostly), or sessile
Stipules
present
Fruit characters
Mostly Capsules
Glands
absent
Hairs
present
Latex
absent
Odor
unknown
Uses
Guaiacum, Zygophyllum, Tribulus and Larrea as ornamentals Balanites for soap and fibres Guaiacum officinale for timber (Lignum vitae, hardest known wood)
Chemical characters
Alkaloids and mustard oils common
Distribution maps
(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):
