Microtropis

Family Celastraceae. Order Celastrales.

Small trees to shrubs. Buttresses absent. Spines absent. Stilt roots absent. Bark gray, brown; not peeling in strips. Exudate absent. Terminal buds not enclosed by leaves.

Complex hairs absent. Stinging hairs absent. Mature twig indumentum absent.

Leaves whorled; 3-10 per whorl; not scale-like; simple; all of the same type; not modified into spines; coriaceous, or leathery; not gland-dotted; symmetric at the base; not dissected; smooth margined. Epidermis waxy, or not waxy. Venation pinnate. Secondary veins open; prominent, or not prominent, but visible. Smallest veins not prominent, but visible, or not visible; net like. Intramarginal vein present. 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 absent.

Inflorescences present; axillary; on a branched axis; specialized inflorescence units absent; numerous and persistent inflorescence bracts absent. Flowers bisexual; stalked; with the parts barely visible to the eye, or about 0.5 cm long or across; round; with male or female parts not raised on a column. Hy