See text The Ebenaceae are a family of flowering plants belonging to order Ericales.

The fruits contain tannins, a plant defense against herbivory, so they are often avoided by animals when unripe.

Diospyros tesselaria (Mauritius ebony) was heavily exploited by the Dutch in the 17th century.

[8] It is a later homonym of Ebenus L., a genus already named in the family Fabaceae, and is thus nomen illegitimum.

Because the name Ebenaceae had become well known, having been used in major botanical references such as Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum, Engler and Prantl's Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien, and Hutchinson's Families of Flowering Plants, it was conserved[9] and is therefore legitimate.