A.S. Hassan & M. Cheek (1999). Meliaceae in Fl. of Somalia 2:228-238
Plantstrees or shrubs up to 60 tall; bisexual r unisexual, rarely spiny; wood often scented. Leaves alternate, usually odd-or even-pinnate, rarely 2-3 times pinnate, or with only 1 or 3 leaflets, or with simple leaves; leaflets usually entire, rarely serrate; stipules absent. Inflorescences usually axillary, paniculate with cymose branches or of compound or simply cymes, or flowers solitary. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, radially symmetric, usually 4-5-merous; calyces 4-6-merous, sepals varying from connate to almost free; corollas usually 4-5-merous, free; stamens (5-)(8-10(-20), filaments usually partly or wholly united to form a staminal tube, rarely completely free, with or without appendages, anthers with 2 thecase, introrse, dehiscing longitudinally; intrastaminal discs variable, rarely absent, fused to the base of the staminal tube or, if free from the tube, cup- or cushion-shaped, sometimes fused to both the tube and the ovary, sometimes just to the base of the ovary; ovary superior, (2-)4-5(-20)-celled, with axile placentation; ovules 1-many per cell; styles 1 per ovary, the head expanded, captitate, globose, ovoid, cylindrical, discoid, or coroniform, entire or shallowly lobed, only partly stigmatic. Fruits usually a loculicidal or septicidal capsule or a drupe, rarely a berry; seeds usually arillate, winged or with a corky or woody outer covering.
Meliaceae includes about 50 genera and 800 species, all of which are almost completely confined to the tropics.
