The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Myrsinaceae
Habit and leaf form. Small trees, or shrubs (mangroves, with the habit of Rhizophora). Helophytic. Leaves alternate; leathery; non-sheathing; gland-dotted (punctate); simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire.
Leaf anatomy. Lamina dorsiventral; with secretory cavities. Secretory cavities schizogenous (with yellow or reddish brown contents).
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities present (schizogenous, with yellow or reddish-brown contents). Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Vessel end-walls simple. Wood parenchyma paratracheal.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite; viviparous.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in umbels. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; sessile terminal or axillary umbels, or short branched racemes. Flowers ebracteate; ebracteolate; small; somewhat irregular to very irregular; asymmetric. The floral irregularity involving the perianth (the calyx). Flowers 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous (leathery); unequal but not bilabiate; dextrorsely contorted. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; gamopetalous (shortly tubular). Corolla lobes about the same length as the tube, or markedly longer than the tube. Corolla dextrorsely contorted; more or less regular (the lobes soon reflexing); leathery.
Androecium 5. Androecial members adnate (inserted in the hairy corolla tube); coherent (the filaments shortly connate); 1 adelphous; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous; opposite the corolla members. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; bilocular (the loculi internally transversely septate); tetrasporangiate.
Gynoecium 3–5 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth to isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; attenuate from the ovary; apical. Stigmas 1. Placentation free central. Ovules in the single cavity 30–100 (‘many’); horizontal to ascending; anatropous; unitegmic; crassinucellate. Endosperm formation nuclear (but with subsequent centripetal wall formation). Endosperm haustoria present; from secondary endosperm tissue, invading funicle and integument.
Fruit non-fleshy; ultimately dehiscent; a capsule to capsular-indehiscent (cylindrical, arcuate, longitudinally ribbed); 1 seeded. Seeds non-endospermic. Embryo well differentiated (germinating within the pericarp). Cotyledons connate into a tube enclosing the plumule. Embryo bent (cylindrical).
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins present. Saponins/sapogenins present. Anatomy non-C4 type.
Peculiar feature. Mangroves.
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical and Australian. Tropical. Palaeotropical.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli, or Tenuinucelli (? - ovules crassinucellate but unitegmic). Dahlgren’s Superorder Primuliflorae; Primulales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Primulales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Asteranae; Order Ericales (as a synonym of Myrsinaceae).
Species 2. Genera 1; Aegiceras.
Illustrations. • Technical details (Aegiceras).
This description is offered for casual browsing only. We strongly advise against extracting comparative information from it. This is much more easily achieved using the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, geographical distribution, genera included in each family, classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo; Cronquist; APG), and notes on the APG classification.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 25th November 2009. http://delta-intkey.com’.
