Thulin, M. (1999) Rutaceae in Flora of Somalia 2: 171-182
Plants trees, shrubs, or herbs, with aromatic oils, sometimes armed with spines or prickles. Leaves alternate or opposite, without stipules; blades simple or compound, with translucent glands, often across the leaf, always along the margins. Inflorescences panicles, racemes, cymes, or clusters. Flowers radially symmetric, bisexual or unisexual, (2-)4-5-merous; sepals free or united near the base, usually imbricate; petals free or united at the base, imbricate or sometimes valvate in bud; stamens inserted at the base of a discc, usually as many or twice as many as the petals, rarely numerous and in bundles, absent or reduced to staminodes in female flowers; ovaries superior, reduced to pistillodes in male flowers, with 1-5(-18) carpels, thse usually unted but sometimes free, with 1-2(-several) ovules per cell styles usually 1; stigmas capitate. Fruits various, berries, drupes, or capsules in Somaliland and Somalia.
The family Rutaceae includes aout 150 genera and 900 species. It is widely distributed in tropical and warm temperate regions, but more numerous is South Africa and Australia.
The family includes several fruit crops, those of Citrus (for example, oranges, kemons, kumquats)being of great economic importance as well as many yielding valuable oils. Most of its members can be recognized by holding a leaf up to the light and seeing the translucent glandular dots and smelling the crushed leaves.