Trees and shrubs. Leaves mostly alternate, simple, entire; stipules absent. Flowers regular, unisexual (male and female on separate plants) or bisexual and with an articulation at the base. Sepals fused together at the base. Petals fused into a tube and with 3-5(7) lobes (as many as sepals). Stamens mostly 14-20, fused to the petals and in 2 whorls. Carpel 1. Ovary superior with 2 ovules in each cell and sometimes a false partition. Styles fused at least at the base. Fruit a berry, often with a persistent and enlarged calyx.
Diospyros kaki is grown for the edible persimmon fruit; most species have hard wood and several are the source of ebonies.
Flowers mostly unisexual with a joint at the base; ovules 2 per cell.
3 genera and about 575 species mostly tropical rainforest with a centre of distribution in the Malay Archipelago but also some northern temperate.
White (1978).
Source: (1997). Ebenaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
