The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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~ Lecythidaceae
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs (rarely). Leaves alternate; spiral (but often pseudoverticillate or tufted); petiolate; not gland-dotted; simple. Lamina entire; usually oblanceolate; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire, or crenate, or dentate.
General anatomy. Plants with silica bodies.
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities absent. Cork cambium present. Cortical bundles present (these orientated with the xylem on the outside). Medullary bundles absent. Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent. Vessel end-walls mostly simple. Wood parenchyma apotracheal.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’ (usually); when solitary, terminal; in racemes, or in corymbs. The ultimate inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; racemes or corymbs, often elongated. Flowers medium-sized to large; regular to very irregular; when irregular, asymmetric. The floral irregularity involving the androecium, or involving the perianth and involving the androecium. Flowers cyclic; pentacyclic, or polycyclic. Free hypanthium present to absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; (6–)8–12; 2 whorled; isomerous; different in the two whorls. Calyx (2–)4(–6); 1 whorled; polysepalous, or gamosepalous; when gamosepalous, blunt-lobed; calyptrate (rarely, in Barringtonia), or not calyptrate; imbricate (rarely calyptrate). Corolla 4(–6); 1 whorled; polypetalous, or gamopetalous (sometimes fused to the staminal cup); imbricate.
Androecium 50–100 (or more — i.e. ‘many’, giving the flowers a fluffy, myrtaceous appearance). Androecial members maturing centrifugally; free of the perianth, or adnate (to the corolla); coherent (the filaments basally united, usually in several series, often concentrated on one side of the flower by abortion of members); 1–20 adelphous (to ‘polyadelphous’); 3–5 whorled (‘in several series’). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens, or including staminodes (sometimes including members lacking anthers). Stamens 20–100 (‘many’); polystemonous; inflexed in bud (or incurved). Anthers basifixed; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; latrorse; tetrasporangiate. Endothecium developing fibrous thickenings. Microsporogenesis simultaneous. Anther wall initially with more than one middle layer (two); of the ‘basic’ type. Tapetum amoeboid. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate (with a specialised marginal ridge); (syn-) colpate, or colporate (or colporoidate); 3-celled.
Gynoecium 2–4(–6) carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth to isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 2–4(–6) celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; inferior. Ovary 2–4(–6) locular. Epigynous disk present (intrastaminal). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 1. Placentation axile to apical. Ovules 2–50 per locule (to ‘many’); anatropous; unitegmic (?—Cronquist 1981), or bitegmic; tenuinucellate. Outer integument not contributing to the micropyle. Embryo-sac development Polygonum-type. Endosperm formation nuclear.
Fruit fleshy, or non-fleshy; dehiscent, or indehiscent; capsular-indehiscent (then broadly 4-winged), or a berry (then fibrous, usually one-seeded), or a capsule. Capsules sometimes circumscissile. Seeds non-endospermic; often woody and large. Embryo well differentiated.
Physiology, biochemistry. Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins absent.
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. Palaeotropical. X = 13.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Theiflorae; Theales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Lecythidales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Asteranae; Order Ericales (as a synonym of Lecythidaceae).
Species about 55. Genera 6; Abdulmajidia, Barringtonia, Careya, Chydenanthus, Combretodendron (= Petersianthus), Petersianthus, Planchonia.
Morton et al. (1998) present these genera as subfamily Planchonioideae of an expanded Lecythidaceae, based on an assessment ‘using both molecular and morphological data’.
Illustrations. • Technical details: Barringtonia (Thonner). • Technical details: Careya, Barringtonia (Lindley).
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’.
