Celastrus sect. Gymnosporia Wight & Arnott, Prodr. Fl. Ind. Orient. 159. 1834.

Shrubs or small trees, usually erect, glabrous or pubescent; branches often thorny. Leaves alternate or fasciculate, entire or serrate, estipulate. Inflorescences axillary, fasciculate, cymose, or flowers solitary. Flowers bisexual, (4 or)5-merous. Disk fleshy, annular, (4 or)5-angled or lobed, intrastaminal; anthers longitudinally dehiscent, introrse. Ovary (2 or)3-locular, base confluent with disk; ovules erect, 2 per locule. Capsule obovoid or nearly globose, leathery, loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds usually 3-6, ellipsoid; aril basal to enveloping seed.

About 80 species: tropics and subtropics of both the Old and New Worlds, but mainly tropics of Africa and Asia; 11 species (seven endemic) in China.

(Authors: Liu Quanru (刘全儒); A. Michele Funston)