Commemorating J.N. Azara (1731–1804), Spanish promoter of science and botany.
Evergreen shrubs and small trees. Wood bitter. Leaves alternate, leathery, simple; stipules leaf-like, often single and slightly smaller than the leaf. Flowers mostly bisexual, small and fragrant in axillary stalked clusters. Sepals 4-5(-6) with 5 opposing glands. Petals 0. Stamens 5, 10 (or numerous), free. Ovary superior, with 1 chamber containing numerous ovules with parietal placentation. Fruit a berry.
Although rare in cultivation in Australia several species are occasionally offered. A. integrifolia Ruiz & Pav., Goldspire, is a shrub or small tree with obovate to roundish entire leaves and is also known through the variegated cultivar 'Variegata'. A. lanceolata Hook. f. has narrow lanceolate saw-toothed leaves to about 7 cm long and a violet berry. (Colac Botanic Gardens). A. microphylla Hook. f. has small roundish leaves mostly less than 2 cm long. A. serrata Ruiz & Pav. has broadly elliptic strongly toothed leaves.
Seed, hardwood cuttings.
Leaf and stipule forming a pair, one large (leaf), one small (stipule).
12 species from S America centred in Chile.
Source: (1997). Flacourtiaceae. 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.
