pronounced: ber-ber-id-AY-see-eye
These are shrubs, or, rarely, small trees, often spiny, or with spiny-margined leaves, mostly glabrous or sometimes with tomentose stems and pedicels. The leaves are alternate, along the stem or often in rosettes, simple or 1-odd-pinnately compound, usually petiolate. The inflorescences are terminal, usually racemes, rarely umbels or solitary flowers. The trimerous flowers are bisexual, radially symmetrical, usually less than 1 cm in diameter. The fruit is a berry, globose to ellipsoid, less than 1 cm, sometimes pruinose, usually juicy. Sometimes there is only one seed, sometimes a few. The seeds have no aril.
