Santalum

Shrubs or small trees; branches ridged or angular, glabrous. Leaves opposite or whorled, well-developed, pinnately veined, petiolate, persistent. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary panicle or raceme, rarely an umbel. Flowers small, bisexual, pedicellate; bracts caducous; tepals 4, fleshy, persistent or caducous and leaving a circular scar, usually with hair tufts at base behind stamens; stamens 4, inserted near base of tepals; disc lobed between tepals; ovary half-inferior or inferior, ovules 2–4, style short, stigma small, 2–4-lobed. Fruit a drupe, more or less globose; mesocarp succulent or firm; endocarp woody, often rugose; seed solitary.