PLANT: Small to large shrubs, rarely arborescent, often spinescent and intricately branched.

LEAVES: alternate or opposite, scattered or fascicled; stipules minute or absent.

FLOWERS: solitary, axillary or terminal on short shoots, perfect, actinomorphic, perigynous, with or without a fleshy or thin, glandular, crenately lobed disk lining the hypanthium; sepals (3-)4-5(-6), ovate, persistent; petals (3-)4-5(-6), distinct, deciduous, narrowly lanceolate to round ovate, usually longer than sepals, often short-clawed; stamens 4-50, sometimes unequal in length; carpels 1-5, distinct, stipitate or sessile, with 1-2 or many ovules.

FRUITS: follicular.

SEEDS: black or brown, with a whitish or yellowish, entire to fimbriate aril.

NOTES: 3 genera, ca. 6 spp., w and sc U.S. and n Mex.

REFERENCES: Mason, Charles T., Jr. Crossosomataceae. . Ariz.-Nev. Acad. Sci. 26(1):2