Celtis Linnaeus (1753: 1043)

Zamengo, Henrique Borges, Chamorro, Débora C., Houtepen, Erika. T., Gaglioti, André Luiz, Pederneiras, Leandro Cardoso, Prado, Darién E. & Oakley, Luis J., 2025, Taxonomic revision of the Celtis iguanaea complex (Cannabaceae), Phytotaxa 689 (1), pp. 53-98 : 58-59

Celtis Linnaeus (1753: 1043) .

Type:— Celtis australis Linnaeus (1753: 1043) .

= Mertensia Kunth (1817: 30) nom. illeg., non Mertensia Roth (1797: 34) .

Type:— Mertensia laevigata Kunth (1817: 31) nom. illeg., non Mertensia laevigata Willdenow (1810: 75) .

= Momisia F. Dietrich (1819: 122) a substitute name for Mertensia Kunth , non Roth.

Type:— Momisia laevigata (Kunth) F. Dietrich (1819: 123) , designated by Britton & Wilson (1924).

Trees, shrubs, or lianas, monoecious; bark lenticellate, branches sometimes with brachyblasts, thorns if present, then straight, curved, or semi-curved in various colors. Leaves alternate and distichous, chartaceous to membranous, petiole adaxially canaliculate, leaf blade usually widely-elliptic, widely-ovate, oblong or ovate, the apex acuminate, acute, attenuate, cuspidate, or obtuse, the base obtuse, rounded, or subcordate, the margins entire, crenulate, crenate, serrulate or serrate, leaf blade trinerved from the base, adaxially opaque or lustrous, smooth or scabrous, abaxial surface velvety, scabrous or smooth, leaf blades concolorous or discolorous, pocket or tuft domatia if present, then mostly in the abaxial axils of secondary, sometimes also os higher level veins. Cymes glomerulate or paniculiform, peduncle sometimes with bract. Staminate flowers light green, pedicellate, glomerulate, (4–)5(–6) sepals and stamens. Pistillate flowers light green, ovary ovate, style conspicuous, inconspicuous or null, stigmatic lobes entire, bifid, bilobed or trifid. Drupe globose to ovate, pedicellate, epicarp yellow, orange, black or purple; pyrene globose or ovate, ivory-white, base sometimes with basal apiculum, apex sometimes with a scar in various shape and a distal apiculum, if basal and distal apiculum present (=biapiculate), if only distal apiculum present (=monoapiculate), ornamentation surface varied at the specific level.

All species in this treatment belong to the C. subg. Mertensia . The main characters of this subgenus are the thorns and the divided stigmatic lobes (bifid or bilobed).