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A close relationship between Berberidopsidaceae and Aextoxicaceae has never been considered until gene sequence studies provided strong support for a relationship between them (see family treatments). In the four-gene analysis of eudicots (Soltis et al. 2003), Gunnerales and subsequently Berberidopsidales are sister to all other core eudicots, the latter being strongly supported by molecular data and isolated from all other clades (Fig. 1). Aextoxicum has long been known for its peculiar wood anatomy, particularly the high number of bars of the vessel element perforations. A recent study by Carlquist (2003) has revealed many important similarities in the wood anatomy of the two families, although these are plesiomorphic. Pollen grains are relatively small and tricolpate to indistinctly colporate. The two families share encyclocytic stomata (Soltis et al. 2005), a rare character in angiosperms, stout filaments, and a ring of vascular bundles in the petiole (Judd and Olmstead 2004).

Perennial herbs, either with ascending or creeping pachycaulous stems, covered with large leaf scars, apically with large to gigantic, long-petioled leaves reaching up to c. 5 m in height (), and between these often covered with conspicuous bracts protecting the inflorescence and vegetative buds, or stoloniferous and mat-forming, with short, upright stem portions bearing leaf-rosettes, reachingfrom4 cm to about 1 m in height, or in one case (), diminutive annuals. Leaves alternate, crowded at stem tips; petioles short to very long; lamina oblong to reniform or peltate, dentate, crenate or palmately lobed, the crenations and lobes with protruding hydathodes; venation in large-leaved species palinactinodromous with veins very prominent and projecting as ribs on abaxial surface, in smaller-leaved species actinodromous or pinnate and less prominent. Sometimes with more or less conspicuous, simple to much divided scales between the leaf-bases, stolons with paired, or single ochrea-like, bracts apically. Inflorescences axillary or pseudoterminal, erect, simple or compound racemes, or spikes; lower flowers mostly pistillate, upper ones staminate, the middle ones sometimes perfect, or flowers all unisexual, in a few cases plants dioecious. Flowers small, bracteate or not, epigynous, sepals 2, anteri-posterior, valvate, sometimes obsolete, petals 2, transversal, mitre-shaped, slightly exceeding the sepals, caducous, in female flowers wanting; stamens 2(1), transversal, with short filaments; anthers dithecal and tetrasporangiate, opening by longitudinal slits; carpels2, united to form an inferior, unilocular ovary; stylodia 2, transversal; stigmas dry, papillate; ovule solitary, pendulous from apex of locule. Fruit drupaceous, coriaceous to fleshy, oval to globose, green or bright red, rarely white or yellow. Seeds with a very small obcordate embryo embedded in copious, oily endosperm. Specialized organs containing endosymbiontic cells are located in the stem between the leaf-bases of all species.

Dioecious trees; twigs, the lower side of leaves, in florescences and flowers including the ovary covered with ferrugineous scales. Leaves alternate to subopposite, simple, entire, conduplicate and sometimes minutely peltate, pinnately veined, estipulate. Inflorescences racemes or botryoids usually in groups of 3 or more, branching from axils of basal prophylls, the male ones longer and more abundant than the female ones; bracts very small, rounded. Flowers (4)5(6)-merous, hypogynous, regular, enveloped in bud by a firm calyptrate bract; sepals orbicular, free, thin, strongly imbricate, caducous; petals broadly clawed, incurved in bud, oblong, with thick midrib, imbricate, persistent; male flowers: stamens 5, antesepalous, alternating with well-developed fleshy, reniform nectary glands; anthers dorsi fixed, introrse, opening by short slits towards the apex, with persistent septum between pollen sacs; gynoecium vestigial; female flowers: staminodia fleshy, alternating with the nectary glands; gynoecium 1-carpellate, style short, strongly de flexed to one side and appressed to the ovary, apically bifid; ovary with 2 pendulous ovules; ovules anatropous, with a long extended endostome. Fruits dry, indehiscent, one-seeded; endosperm ruminate, oily-proteinaceous; embryo well-developed, cotyledons flattened, cordate-orbicular. = 16. Monotypic, Ruiz & Pav., a tree of the coastal and lake region of southern Chile and adjacent Argentina.

Small evergreen trees or shrubs, sometimes hemiepiphytic; young stems and axes of the in florescence quadrangulate. Leaves opposite or whorled, simple, entire; blades oblong-obovate or elliptical, coriaceous, glabrous, venation brochidodromous; stipules 2-a few. Inflorescences thyrsoidal, axillary at the ends of branches, 10-30-flowered; flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, barely hemi-epigynous, 5(6)-merous, apetalous or possibly petals rudimentary; floral tube campanulate; sepals valvate, thick, irregularly fleshy on the adaxial surface; stamens 5, fleshy, inserted below the sinus of adjacent sepals at the margin of a broad lobed nectary, filaments short with large cordate connective, the anthers dorsi fixed, introrse, the sporangia terminal; ovary superior, bilaterally compressed, bilocular; placentation parietal; ovules 40-60, horizontally imbricate in staggered vertical rows. Fruits bilaterally compressed dry capsules dehiscing loculicidally. Seeds flattened, oblong to lunate, thin, encircled by a fragile membranous wing; embryo central, straight; endosperm 0. = 14.

Scrambling or viny shrubs, glabrous throughout; nodes unilacunar, 1(+2) trace; stems with conspicuous raised lenticels. Leaves opposite, simple, serrate to mostly entire, shortly petiolate; stipules 0 but with minute colleters at each side of the nodes. Inflorescences lax axillary panicles, or flowers solitary; pedicels at the mid with 2 prophylls. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, tetramerous, half-inferior; sepals largely separate, imbricate at lower level, greatly enlarged in fruit and persistent, borne in pairs at slightly different levels, their basal parts coalescing with basal portions of petals (when present) and stamens into a short floral tube which is adnate to the lower half of the ovary wall; petals minute with reduced blade or completely absent (even within the same individual); stamens 8; anthers oblong, 2-lobed at base,almost basi fixed, tetrasporangiate,with connective protrusion, dehiscing with longitudinal slits, latrorse-introrse; gynoecium of 4 laterally concrescent carpels; ovary one quarter- to half-inferior, 4-locular, deeply 4-furrowed, gradually tapering into a 4-grooved, apically 4-lobed style with 4 canals; stigmas terminal, highly papillate; ovules 1 per locule, descending, suspended on axile placenta with long, thick funiculus, bitegmic, anatropous. Fruit nut-like, hard, 1-locular and 1-seeded, with the sepals persistent; seed hippocrepiform or reniform; embryo curved; endosperm fleshy.

Evergreen shrubs or slender trees, entirely glabrous. Leaves persistent, alternate, serrate or serrulate, rarely subentire, penninerved, petiolate; stipules minute, caducous. Flowers hermaphrodite, axillary, solitary or in few-flowered racemes or fascicles, sweet-scented; bracts scale-like, minute; pedicels with 1–3 scaly bracteoles in the lower half; perianth uniseriate; sepals 4–5(6), white, turning yellowish, free except at the base, imbricate, orbicular, the inner 3 more membranous and petaloid; petals 0; stamens very numerous, free, inserted towards the outer edge of a glandular disk; filaments filiform; anthers small, orbicular, introrse, basi fixed near the base; gynoecium monomerous; ovary superior, ellipsoid, sessile or shortly stipitate, 1-locular; placentation lateral with 6–8 alternating ovules in 2 rows; ovules campylotropous; stigma sessile, large, capitate-bilobed and somewhat decurrent on ventral side. Fruit a fleshy, white berry with persistent perianth and about 6 obovate seeds; testa crustaceous, smooth, whitish, glossy; embryo incurved; endosperm sparse. A monogeneric family with a single polymorphic (or 8?)species in eastern and South Africa, Madagascar including the Comores, and the Mascarenes and Seychelles.

Scandent shrubs with sympodial branching and collateral axillary buds. Leaves spiral, simple, sub-3-5-pli-nerved, entire to coarsely dentate, estipulate, petioles pulvinate or not. Flowers in racemes or solitary, hypogynous, hermaphrodite (always?); pedicels with prophylls; petals well-developed, either distinct from sepals, or outer sepaloid tepals grading into inner petaloid ones; disk extra-staminal, persistent in fruit, or 0; stamens either in a single whorl of 6–13, or numerous and densely packed on torus; anthers (sub) basifixed, dehiscing longitudinally latero-introrse; ovary 1-locular, placentas parietal, 3 or 5, ovules epitropous, 2 or more per placenta. Fruit berry-like, indehiscent, with persistent style; seeds with fleshy or leathery exotesta, with chalazal arilloid (only ); endosperm copious, oily-proteinaceous; embryo minute.

More or less subpachycaulous small to medium-sized trees and shrubs. Leaves convolute, spiral, crowded towards apex of branches, with close, ascending lateral veins, margins serrulate, initially setulose, estipulate; petiole short or 0. Flowers single, or more or less cymose in florescences; pedicels with 2 prophylls or several bracts; flowers bisexual, cyclic; sepals 5, unequal, free, quincuncial; petals 5, contorted, free; stamens numerous; filaments slender, free, or basally connate into 5 antepetalous bundles; anthers short, basi fixed; fasciclode + or 0; ovary 3(-5)-locular, with numerous orderly arranged ovules on biseriate axile placentae; stylodia free or united into a branched or simple style; stigmas papillate. Fruits septicidal capsules with a persistent central column; seeds with scanty endosperm;embryo straight.

Evergreen shrubs or trees, rarely subshrubs or rhizomatous perennial herbs, glabrous, sometimes with uni- or multicellular hairs, monoecious, rarely dioecious. Leaves alternate or decussate, petiolate, rarely sessile, entire, rarely dentate, pinnately veined, less often tripliveined, estipulate. Flowers in axillary or terminal botryoids or spikes, the male above the female ones, or one female above the male, subtended by decurrent bracts, the female with prophylls. Flowers actinomorphic, hypogynous; male:tepals 4, decussate, rarely wanting; stamens free, 4, 6 or 8, antetepalous, or rarely up to 45 in a more complex arrangement, if 6, then two pairs opposite the inner tepals, often inserted around a pistillode; anthers dorsi fixed, dithecal, tetrasporangiate, longitudinally dehiscent, borne on long filaments, rarely sessile; pistillode present or wanting; female: often larger than the male, fewer or solitary; tepals 4–6; ovary syncarpous with free stylodia, (2)3(4)-carpellate, sometimes with false septa; placentation axile; stylodia subulate, divergent, rarely connate at the base, stigmatic area decurrent along the ventral fold; ovules usually 2 per locule, anatropous. Fruit a dry capsule with persistent stylodia, loculicidally dehiscent into 2-horned valves, or indehiscent, subdrupaceous or berry-like. Seeds black or dark, frequently carunculate; endospermcopious, fleshy, oily; embryo straight, cotyledons flat.

Evergreen shrubs or trees, epiphytic or not, glands and/or canals in most parts of the plant; xanthones widespread; plants glabrous or with uni- or multicellular hairs, colleters common; terminal bud scaly or naked. Leaves opposite, sometimes whorled or alternate, entire, estipulate, but paired ‘glands’ sometimes found at base. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, rarely. Flowers single, often modified cymose. Flowers perfect or unisexual, actinomorphic, usually with prophylls, sepals free, occasionally fused, 2(3)4, or 5(-20); petals (0, 3)4-5(-8), free; stamens (4-)∞, free or variously fasciculate, phalangiate, or otherwise connate, fascicles or phalanges opposite the petals, anthers dithecate, extrose to introrse, opening by slits, rarely pores, connective often with glands of various types; receptacular nectary absent; ovary superior, 1-5(-20)-locular, placentation axile or parietal, apical or basal, ovules (1)2-8/carpel, anatropous, sometimes amphitropous, bitegmic, tenuinucellate; free stylodia or simple style long to short or 0, stigmas more or less expanded, smooth and sticky or minutely porate, rarely papillose or ± punctate; fruit a berry or septicidal or -fragal capsule, seeds small to large, winged or arillate or not, testa with epidermis and exotegmen alone, the latter lignified and with sinuous anticlinal walls, or more complex and with vascular bundles permeating a many-layered testa, distinctive exotegmen then often absent; embryo large to small, cotyledons massive to almost absent; endosperm initially free nuclear, often absent at maturity; germination epigeal or hypogeal, if latter, then radicle may die early, replaced by adventitious roots.