| Classification |
| Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order Type: Eudicots-Asterids I
Order: Lamiales
Family: Oleaceae
Family Common Name: Olive Family
Genera: Chimonanthus, Syringa |
Defining Features: Leaves
with secretory hairs.
Defining Morphology: Floral
Features: Flowers are actinomorphic and usually bisexual. Inflorescences
are determinate, axillary and terminal in cyme or reduced to a solitary
flower. Flowers are often 4-merous. Sometimes there is a nectariferous
disk around the gynoecium. Ovaries are superior with axile placentation.
Fruit and Seed Features: Dicotyledon. Fruit a capsule, berry, drupe or
samara. Seeds have straight embryo and oily endosperm and some with no
endosperm. Vegetative Features: Habit as trees and shrubs, sometimes lianoid.
Leaves are opposite (spiral in Jasminum), simple, pinnate, or 1-to-3 foliate
(odd-pinnately). Stipules are absent.
Distribution: Almost cosmopolitan,
centered in SE Asia and Australasian.
Economic Use: Olives and olive
oil, timber (Fraxinus) and cultivated garden and indoor ornamentals.
Number of Genera Globally:
29
Number of Species Globally: 600
