5501.000 Punica L. - Pomegranates

Shrubs or small trees; branches often terminating in spines. Leaves opposite, sometimes crowded on short lateral shoots; lamina simple, entire. Inflorescence 1-5-flowered clusters, or solitary; flowers actinomorphic; floral tube thick, leathery, adnate to ovary and produced above it; sepals thick, valvate, persistent; petals showy red (or white), strongly crumpled; stamens numerous. Fruit berry-like with leathery rind, retaining a crown of sepals. Seeds many, with translucent, clear to dark red or rose, juicy, sarcotesta; cotyledons spirally rolled.

Worldwide: 2 species from SE Europe to the Himalayas

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated taxon.