Araliaceae

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Araliaceae A family of shrubs, climbers, and soft-stemmed pachycaul trees, and a few herbs, which is the tropical counterpart to the Umbelliferae. The leaves are often large, and usually compound. The flowers are usually borne in compound umbels and are small and regular, with 4 or 5 reduced sepals, 5 or 3 free petals and stamens, a disc, and the ovary inferior with 5 loculi (see LOCULE) and 1 pendulous ovule. The fruit is a 5-seeded drupe. There are 58 genera, with about 800 species, most of them tropical.

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