Celastrus

Family Celastraceae. Order Celastrales.

Large trees to shrubs. Buttresses absent. Spines absent. Stilt roots absent. Bark gray, brown; not peeling in strips. Vertical stripes in the inner bark or wood absent. Odor absent. Exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Complex hairs absent. Stinging hairs absent. Mature twig indumentum present, or absent; dense, or sparse.

Leaves spiral; not scale-like; simple; all of the same type; not modified into spines; coriaceous; not gland-dotted; symmetric at the base; not dissected; smooth margined, or wavy margined, or with small to large teeth on margin. Epidermis not waxy. Venation pinnate. Secondary veins open; prominent. Smallest veins prominent, or not prominent, but visible; net like. Intramarginal vein present, or absent. Stalk of blade less than a quarter the length of the blade; not winged; attached to base of leaf blade; not swollen. Stipules present; free from one another; laterally placed; not encircling the twig; scale-like; not fringed; small; not persistent. Domatia absent. Basal glands absent. Hairs on mature leaf present, or absent; dense, or sparse.

Inflorescences present, or represented by solitary flowers only; terminal, or axillary; the flowers from a single point on the stem, or on an unbranched axis, or on a branched axis; specialized inflorescence units absent; numerous and persistent inflorescence bracts absent. Flowers at lea