Family Rhamnaceae

Name: Rhamnaceae

Meaning of Name:
Rhamnaceae, from Late Latin rhamnus (‘a thorn bush’), from Ancient Greek ῥάμνος (rhámnos, ‘various prickly shrubs’) + Latin -āceae (the feminine plural of -āceus, ‘resembling’, a suffix used to form the taxonomic family names of plants, algae, bacteria, and fungi)

Common Names:
The buckthorn family

Botanical Information:
Rhamnaceae, or the buckthorn family, comprises 55 genera and 9500 species.

Some species in this family are grown as ornamentals, while others have economic importance producing fruit, wood, and dyes.

Surprisingly for a family called the buckthorn family, the defining botanical characterisitc of Rhamnaceae species is not the thorns, but their unmistakeable flowers!