Barbeya

▪ plant genus

      genus of dicotyledonous flowering tree, the sole species of which is B. oleoides. It grows in Ethiopia and Somalia and on the Arabian Peninsula. Barbeya has the general aspect of the olive tree but many botanical characteristics of the elm. Barbeya is included in the rose order (Rosales) as a separate family, Barbeyaceae; the taxonomic placement of the family is uncertain, however, and some authorities place it near Elaegnaceae, Rhamnaceae, or Dirachmaceae in Rosales.

      Barbeya has oppositely paired, simple, smooth-margined leaves that lack basal appendages (stipules) and are densely hairy and white on the lower surface. The male and female flowers are on separate plants and are wind-pollinated. The flowers lack petals and bracts but have a three- or four-lobed calyx, or outer whorl, of floral parts that persists and enlarges with the fruit. Male flowers have six to nine stamens (pollen-producing structures) and are often covered with a rust-coloured fuzz. Female flowers have a superior ovary (i.e., one positioned above the other floral parts) composed of one carpel, or ovule-bearing structural unit, containing one ovule and having a terminal plumelike style (the pollen-receptive part of the female structure).

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