''Crossopetalum'', commonly known as Christmas-berries or maiden berries, is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the family

Celastraceae The Celastraceae (staff-vine or bittersweet) are a family of 97 genera and 1,350 species of herbs, vines, shrubs and small trees, belonging to the order Celastrales. The great majority of the genera are tropical, with only ''Celastrus'' (the staf ...

. It comprises about 30-40 species.

Description

''Crossopetalum'' taxa are shrubs or trees, with opposite or whorled persistent leaves with petiole and stipules. Inflorescences are axillary, regrouping white, pale green, reddish, or purplish radially symmetric flowers, with four sepals, four petals, and a four-carpellate pistil. Intrastaminal nectaries are annular and fleshy. Fruits are red drupes, with one-two seeds per fruit.

Etymology

The

etymology Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...

of the genus name ''Crossopetalum'' derives from the two

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

words (), meaning "fringe", and (), meaning "leaf of a flower". It alludes to the

fimbriate A fimbria (plural fimbriae, adjective fimbriate) is a Latin word that literally means "fringe." It is commonly used in science and medicine, with its meaning depending on the field of study or the context. Fimbria may refer to: * Fimbria (bacter ...

petals of the type species (''C. rhacoma''). The synonym name ''Myginda'' is a taxonomic anagram derived from the name of the confamilial genus ''

Gyminda ''Gyminda'' (false box) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Celastraceae. Selected species * ''Gyminda latifolia'' (Sw.) Urb. * ''Gyminda orbicularis ''Gyminda orbicularis'' is a species of plant in the family Celastraceae. It is end ...

''. The latter name is a taxonomic patronym honoring Franz von Mygind (1710 - 1789), a Danish-Austrian court official, who traveled to

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, collected plants with herbarium specimens hosted in the

Hungarian Natural History Museum The Hungarian Natural History Museum ( hu, Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum) in Budapest, dating back to 1802, houses the largest natural history collections of Hungary and the region. History of the museum Foundation In 1802, Count Feren ...

in Budapest, and was a friend of

Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin Nikolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin (16 February 172726 October 1817) was a scientist who studied medicine, chemistry and botany. Biography Born in Leiden in the Netherlands, he studied medicine at Leiden University, then moved first to P ...

Systematics

According to

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It was launched in March 2017 with the ultimate aim being "to enable users to access information on all the world's known seed-bearing plants by ...

References

Celastraceae Celastrales genera {{Celastraceae-stub