The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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~ Monimiaceae
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs. Leaves opposite; petiolate; gland-dotted, or not gland-dotted (?); aromatic; simple; exstipulate.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; paracytic.
Lamina dorsiventral. The mesophyll not containing mucilage cells. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (Doryphora, Laurelia).
Stem anatomy. Nodes unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Vessel end-walls oblique; simple (with up to 100 bars). Primary medullary rays narrow. Sieve-tube plastids P-type; type I (a).
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite, or monoecious, or dioecious, or polygamomonoecious.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; when solitary, axillary; when aggregated, in cymes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Flowers regular, or somewhat irregular; partially acyclic. The gynoecium acyclic. Floral receptacle markedly hollowed. Free hypanthium present.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or sepaline, or vestigial, or absent (‘apetalous’); when present, 4 (2 + 2), or 6–20 (?); 2(–3) whorled. Calyx 1 whorled. Corolla when present, 7–20 (or more); 1 whorled.
Androecium in male flowers 12–100 (? — ‘many’). Androecial members branched, or unbranched (?); when few, 1 whorled, or 2 whorled (in one or two ‘series’). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens, or including staminodes (in the hermaphrodite flowers of Doryphora). Stamens (4–)6–100 (‘definite’ or ‘indefinite’); when ‘definite’, alternisepalous (when K and C determinable, or opposite the perianth segments). Filaments appendiculate (each with a pair of glandular scales at the base). Anthers adnate; dehiscing by longitudinal valves (the flaps attached at the tops of the thecae); extrorse; appendaged (by extension of the connective), or unappendaged. Pollen grains aperturate; 2 aperturate, or 3 aperturate; sulculate.
Gynoecium 3–100 carpelled (i.e. to ‘many’); apocarpous; eu-apocarpous; superior to inferior (the carpels sometimes sunk in the receptacle). Carpel with a lateral style, or with a gynobasic style; 1 ovuled. Placentation basal. Ovules ascending; anatropous.
Fruit non-fleshy; an aggregate. The fruiting carpel indehiscent; an achene. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Embryo well differentiated (small). Embryo straight.
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols present; kaempferol and quercetin. Ellagic acid absent. Saponins/sapogenins absent. Aluminium accumulation not found.
Geography, cytology. Temperate to tropical. Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Chile. X = 22.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Magnoliiflorae; Laurales. Cronquist’s Subclass Magnoliidae; Laurales. APG (1998) basal order; Laurales. Species 12. Genera 6; Atherosperma, Daphnandra, Doryphora, Laurelia, Laureliopsis, Nemuaron.
Economic uses, etc. Edible fruits (Laurelia).
Illustrations. • Technical details (Glossocalyx). • Technical details (Atherosperma, Doryphora).
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’.
