The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Meliaceae, Loganiaceae
Habit and leaf form. Small trees, or shrubs (much branched, rigid, the twigs angular, puberulous). Leaves alternate; subsessile; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; one-veined (linear-oblong). Leaves exstipulate.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; anomocytic.
Lamina dorsiventral.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Xylem with fibre tracheids.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary; axillary; somewhat irregular; 4 merous. Hypogynous disk present; annular (cupular, fleshy, crenate).
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 4; 1 whorled; shortly gamosepalous. Calyx lobes markedly longer than the tube. Degree of gamosepaly (maximum length joined/total calyx length) 0.2 (or less). Calyx slightly imbricate. Corolla 4; 1 whorled; polypetalous (the petals large); imbricate; purple.
Androecium 8. Androecial members coherent; 1 adelphous (filaments shortly connate); 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 8; diplostemonous; both alternating with and opposite the corolla members. Anthers introrse.
Gynoecium 4 carpelled. The pistil 4 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 4 locular. Styles 1 (filiform). Stigmas 1; punctiform. Placentation axile. Ovules 2 per locule; amphitropous.
Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules loculicidal. Dispersal unit the seed. Seeds non-endospermic. Embryo curved.
Physiology, biochemistry. Sugars transported as sugar alcohols + oligosaccharides + sucrose.
Geography, cytology. South Africa.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Rutiflorae; Sapindales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Sapindales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; malvid; Order Sapindales (as a synonym of Meliaceae).
Species 1. Genera 1; only genus, Nymania (Aitonia).
Convincingly referred to Meliaceae-Turraeae by Pennington and Styles 1975.
Illustrations. • Nymania capensis: Bot. Mag. 173, 1781. • Nymania capensis: Bot. Mag. 173, text.
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’.
