The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Anthericaceae
Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Perennial; with a basal aggregation of leaves; shortly rhizomatous. Leaves alternate; spiral (?); sheathing; with ‘normal’ orientation; simple. Lamina entire; linear; parallel-veined; without cross-venules (?). Lamina margins entire. Leaves with a persistent basal meristem, and basipetal development (?).
Leaf anatomy. Lamina dorsiventral.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening absent.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite (with the supposedly dioecious Terauchia representing a smut-induced monstrosity).
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in panicles (these condensed, spicate). Inflorescences not scapiflorous; terminal; terminal, erect, pedunculate, leafy, spicate condensed panicles. Flowers regular; 3 merous; tetracyclic. Perigone tube present (the tepals connivent into a short tube).
Perianth of ‘tepals’; 6; free (above the tube); 2 whorled; isomerous; sepaloid to petaloid (?); similar in the two whorls; green to white, or purple, or brown (with brownish veins); persistent; non-accrescent.
Androecium 3. Androecial members adnate (to the inner or outer tepals); all equal; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 3; isomerous with the perianth; alterniperianthial, or oppositiperianthial (?); filantherous (the filaments short and flat). Anthers basifixed (linear); non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse. Microsporogenesis successive.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 1; capitate (small). Placentation axile. Ovules 2 per locule; anatropous.
Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules loculicidal. Dispersal unit the seed. Fruit 3–6 seeded. Seeds endospermic (endosperm fleshy); fusiform-triangular. Seeds without starch. Cotyledons 2. Embryo cylindric. Testa encrusted with phytomelan; black.
Seedling. Hypocotyl internode absent. Cotyledon hyperphyll elongated; more or less circular in t.s. Coleoptile absent.
Geography, cytology. Holarctic, or Paleotropical. North China.
Taxonomy. Subclass Monocotyledonae. Superorder Liliiflorae; Asparagales. Species 1. Genera 1; Anemarrhena only.
Conran et al. (1997): description insufficiently detailed, and inadequately cross-referenced with Anthericaceae.
Economic uses, etc. Cultivated ornamental.
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: 10th April 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.