5. Condalia Cavanilles, Anales Hist. Nat. 1: 39, plate 4. 1799. name conserved.
Snakewood [For Antonio Condal, 1745–1804, Spanish physician who accompanied Peter Loefling on a journey up the Orinoco River] Snakewood [For Antonio Condal, 1745–1804, Spanish physician who accompanied Peter Loefling on a journey up the Orinoco River]
Guy L. Nesom
Shrubs or small trees, usually armed with thorns, sometimes unarmed; bud scales absent. Leaves deciduous, alternate, mostly borne on short shoots and usually fascicled; blade not gland-dotted; pinnately veined. Inflorescences axillary, within foliage, fascicles or flowers solitary; peduncles and pedicels not fleshy in fruit. Pedicels present or absent. Flowers bisexual; hypanthium hemispheric, 1–1.5 mm wide; sepals 5, spreading, greenish abaxially, yellowish adaxially, deltate, keeled adaxially; petals 0 (5, yellow, hooded, spatulate, short-clawed in C. ericoides); nectary absent, thin, or margin thickened, lining hypanthium; stamens 5; ovary superior, 2-locular at least early in development, 1 locule often suppressed; style 1. Fruits drupes; stone 1, indehiscent.
Species 18 (7 in the flora): w United States, Mexico, Central America, South America.
A close relationship between Condalia and Ziziphus might be inferred from numerous synonyms of one genus within the other—drupaceous fruits are produced in both genera. However, the closest relatives of Condalia appear to be Karwinskia and Rhamnidium Reissek (J. E. Richardson et al. 2000) of Central America, South America, and the West Indies, and only slightly more distantly, Berchemia, Rhamnus, and Sageretia.
SELECTED REFERENCE Johnston, M. C. 1962. Revision of Condalia including Microrhamnus (Rhamnaceae). Brittonia 14: 332–368.
