6. Sageretia Brongniart, Mém. Fam. Rhamnées. 52, plate 2, fig. 2. 1826.
Mock buckthorn [For Augustin Sageret, 1763–1851, French botanist] Mock buckthorn [For Augustin Sageret, 1763–1851, French botanist]
Guy L. Nesom
Shrubs or woody vines [trees], arching, sprawling, drooping, or clambering [erect], tendrils absent, armed with thorns (sometimes not prominent); bud scales present. Stems not twining, hairy. Leaves persistent or tardily deciduous, present at flowering, usually opposite to subopposite, sometimes alternate distally; blade not gland-dotted; pinnately veined, secondary veins not strongly parallel [± parallel], tertiary veins reticulate. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, overtopping or extending beyond foliage, spikelike or spicate, paniclelike thyrses, [5–]30–120[–150]-flowered; peduncles and pedicels not fleshy in fruit. Pedicels usually absent, rarely present. Flowers bisexual; hypanthium shallowly cupulate to hemispheric, 1–2 mm wide; sepals 5, erect, yellowish green, triangular, ± fleshy, keeled adaxially; petals 5, white to yellow, hooded, spatulate, short-clawed; nectary fleshy, cupulate, distally free from hypanthium; stamens 5; ovary superior, 2–3-locular; style 1. Fruits drupes; stones (2–)3, tardily dehiscent.
Species 30–35 (3 in the flora): North America, Mexico, se Asia.
Most species of Sageretia are from southeast Asia, with 15 endemic to China (Chen Y. L. and C. Schirarend 2007). Four are native to the Americas (G. L. Nesom 1993h).
