Flora of New Zealand Series

Prostrate or erect evergreen shrubs or shrublets, more rarely small trees. Lvs alternate, very rarely opposite, often ericoid, sometimes densely crowded, usually entire, often rigid and coriaceous, exstipulate. Fls small, solitary, in spikes or racemes, axillary or terminal, usually ⚥; bracts usually prominent. Calyx 4-5-lobed or of free sepals, persistent. Corolla 4-5-lobed, rarely of free petals; lobes imbricate or valvate, occasionally the lobes coherent and tube opening transversely. Stamens 4-5, generally epipetalous but sometimes inserted on receptacle; anthers 1-locular, opening by longitudinal slits; staminodes sometimes present or reduced to hair tufts or glands. Pollen often shed in tetrads. Ovary superior, nearly always surrounded by hypogynous nectariferous disc of scales; carpels (1)-5-10; style single; ovules 1-many on axile or apical placentae. Fr. a loculicidal capsule (subfam. Epacrideae) or a drupe with 1-5-seeded stone (subfam. Styphelieae). Seeds small, endospermic; embryo straight.

c. 30 genera, 400 spp., mainly S. Hemisphere, especially Australia.