| General Information |
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| Distribution | Tropical and temperate regions of the Old World, with about 300 species.
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Habit
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Perennial herbs, rhizome subterranean or sometimes woody with aerial roots, stems often armed with short, recurved prickles.
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Leaves
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Leaves reduced to scariose and often minute scales bearing modified branchlets (cladophylls) in their axils, these acicular or flat.
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Flowers
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Inflorescences fascicular, racemose, or subumbellate, the flowers bisexual, the pedicels articulated distally; perianth segments and stamens 6, free or essentially so, the anthers dorsifixed, 2-lobed, introrse; ovary 3-locular, the ovules 2 or more in each locule, the styles free or connate.
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Fruit
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Fruit a globose, red, orange, or black berry, with 1 or few seeds.
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Seeds
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Seeds shiny, black.
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Contributor
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David Lorence
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