Fici, S. (1999) Araliaceae in Flora of Somalia 2: 267-268

Plants trees, shrubs, woody vines or, rarely, herbaceous plants, sometimes armed, sometimes dioecious or polygamous. Leaves usually alternate, stipules usually present; blades palmately of pinnately compound, rarely simple and palmately lobed, in some genera, leaves of juveniles and mature branches markedly different. Inflorescences usually in umbels, rarely in racemes, spikes of openly branched. Flowers small, usually radially symmetric, and 5-merous, bisexual or unisexual; calyces with tubes adnate to the ovaries, lobes reduced or absent; petals (3-)5(-12), usually valvate, free or sometimes united at the base; stamens usually as many as the petals and alternate with them; anthers dorsifixed, longtitundinally dehiscent; ovaries inferior, with 2-5(-many) cells; ovules 1 per cell; styles as many as the cells, often united at the base into stylopodia. Fruits berries or drupes; seeds with small embryos and abundant oily endosperm.

The family Araliaceae includes about 43 genera and 1450 species (Numbers updated 2022-01-12 based on Stevens 2022). It is most abundant in tropical and subtropical regions, but some species extend into temperate regions. 

Only one genus is known from Somaliland and Somalia, Cussonia.

©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Reproduced with permission.

Plants usually trees or shrubs, rarely herbs, sometimes climbers, often polygamous; bark or pith with resin or gum canals. Leaves usually alternate, rarely opposite, petiolate, with or without stipules, stipules usually adnate, rarely free; petioles; blades simple or compound. Inflorescences usually umbellate, usually racemosely or paniculately arranged, sometimes solitary. Flowers pedicellate, pedicels often continuous with the calyces or not; calyces usually forming a tube and adnate to the ovaries; corollas deciduous, sometimes rapidly so, of (3-)5 or more letals; stamens free, as many as the petals, inserted around a disk; ovaries inferior, with 1-many locules, each locule with 1 ovule; styles as many as the locules, varying from free to fully united. Fruits berries or drupes. 

The family Araliaceae includes about 43 genera and 1450 species (Stevens 2022) and is most abundant in tropical and subtropical regions. 

Note: Interpretation of the Araliaceae and its genera has changed significantly since publication of this treatment in the Flora of West Pakistan. I have amended the numbers of genera and species based on Stevens (2022), but not reviewed whether there are additionall genera or species present in Pakistan so the description and key published for Pakistan is as published in 1975. M.E. Barkworth 2022-01-12.

Key to the genera and species in Pakistan.

Stevens, P.F. (2022).  Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017 [and more or less continuously updated since]. Accessed 2022-01-12.

Global distribution of Araliaceae based on GBIF.

Linh, N.N., P.L.B. Hang, T.T.T. Hue, N.H. Ha, H.H. Hanh, N.D. Ton, & L.T.T. Hien(2022) Species discrimination of novel chloroplast DNA barcodes and their application for identification of Panax (Aralioideae, Araliaceae). PhytoKeys 188: 1-18. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.188.75937

Stevens, P.F. (2022). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website Version 14, July 2017 [and more or less continuously updated since]. Accessed 2022-01-12.