{{Short description|Genus of flowering plants}} {{Hatnote|Not to be confused with Paliurus, the ancient settlement in Libya now known as Timimi}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = {{fossil range|66|0|Maastrichtian - recent|ref=<ref name=mobot>{{Cite web |title=Rosales|url=http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/orders/rosalesweb.htm|access-date=2023-06-16 |website=www.mobot.org}}</ref>}} | image = Paliurus spina-christi 4.jpg | image_caption = ''Paliurus spina-christi'' | taxon = Paliurus | authority = Mill.<ref name="GRIN">{{cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?8773 |title=Genus: ''Paliurus'' Mill. |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |date=2004-02-10 |access-date=2010-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090507014050/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/genus.pl?8773 |archive-date=2009-05-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = See text | synonyms = ''Aubletia'' <small>Lour.</small> | synonyms_ref = <ref name="GRIN"/> }}
'''''Paliurus''''' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rhamnaceae. The eight species are native to warm, dry regions of Eurasia and North Africa from Morocco and Spain east to Japan and Taiwan.
==Description== They are shrubs or small trees growing to 3–15 m tall. The shoots are zig-zagged, with a leaf and two stipular spines on the outside of each kink. The leaves are deciduous or evergreen, oval, 2–10 cm long and 1–7 cm broad, glossy green, with three conspicuous veins at the base, and an entire or bluntly toothed margin. The fruit is a dry woody nutlet centred in a circular wing 1–3.5 cm diameter.
==Ecology==
''Paliurus'' species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including the ''Bucculatrix'' leaf-miners ''B. albella'' (feeds exclusively on ''P. spina-christi''), ''B. paliuricola'' (feeds exclusively on ''Paliurus spp.'') and ''B. turatii'' (feeds exclusively on ''P. aculeatus'').
==Selected species== *''Paliurus hemsleyanus'' <small>Rehder ex Schirarend & Olabi</small> (Southern China) *''Paliurus orientalis'' <small>(Franch.) Hemsl.</small> (Central China) *''Paliurus ramosissimus'' <small>(Lour.) Poir.</small> (Eastern Asia) *''Paliurus spina-christi'' <small>Mill.</small><ref name="GRINSpecies">{{cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?8773 |title=GRIN Species Records for Paliurus |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |access-date=2010-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001213110200/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?8773 |archive-date=2000-12-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
===Formerly placed here=== *''Dracontomelon dao'' <small>(Blanco) Merr. & Rolfe</small> (as ''P. dao'' <small>Blanco</small> or ''P. edulis'' <small>Blanco</small>) *''Harrisonia perforata'' <small>(Blanco) Merr.</small> (''as P. perforata'' <small>Blanco</small>)<ref name="GRINSpecies"/>
==References== {{Reflist}} *{{cite book |first=K. D. |last=Rushforth |year=1999 |title=Trees of Britain and Europe |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=0-00-220013-9}} *{{Commons category-inline}} *{{Wikispecies-inline}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q141273}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Rhamnaceae Category:Rhamnaceae genera Category:Taxa named by Philip Miller
{{Rhamnaceae-stub}}