The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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Including Anredereae (Anrederaceae) J.G. Argardh, Ullucaceae Nak.
Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Perennial; with a basal aggregation of leaves, or with neither basal nor terminal aggregations of leaves; rhizomatous, or tuberous. Self supporting, or climbing; the climbers stem twiners, or scrambling. Mesophytic. Leaves opposite, or alternate; somewhat fleshy; petiolate; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined to palmately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; paracytic, or anomocytic and paracytic.
The mesophyll containing mucilage cells. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (Basella).
Stem anatomy. Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Primary vascular tissue comprising a ring of bundles; bicollateral (at least in the larger bundles). Internal phloem present (commonly?). Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent. Xylem with vessels. Vessel end-walls simple. Sieve-tube plastids P-type; type III (a).
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite (mostly), or monoecious (? — at least sometimes ‘functionally unisexual’).
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in spikes, or in panicles. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; panicles, racemes or spikes. Flowers bracteate (the bracts small); bracteolate (the two bracteoles calyx-like, connate at the base or not, often winged and persistent in the fruit); regular (excluding paired bracteoles); 5 merous; cyclic; tricyclic, or tetracyclic (if the bracteoles regarded as ‘perianth’). Floral receptacle not markedly hollowed. Free hypanthium present. Hypogynous disk present; annular.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla (if the bracteoles are regarded as calyx, the calyx as corolla), or sepaline (the best interpretation?), or petaline; 5, or 7 (if the ‘bracteoles’ are mistaken for perianth); 1 whorled, or 2 whorled (if the bracteoles are included); anisomerous (if the bracteoles included); persistent. Calyx 5 (i.e. the true perianth), or 2 (i.e. the bracteoles); polysepalous (the true sepals and/or the bracteoles sometimes almost distinct), or gamosepalous (the bracteoles and/or the true sepals usually tubular below); persistent (both the bracteoles and the true calyx); imbricate.
Androecium 5. Androecial members adnate (to the base of the perianth members, or to the tube); free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous; bent outwards in bud. Anthers dorsifixed; versatile; dehiscing via pores, or dehiscing via short slits, or dehiscing via longitudinal slits; tetrasporangiate. Microsporogenesis simultaneous. Tapetum glandular. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; foraminate, or rugate (pantocolpate, or cuboid with a colpus on each furrow); spinulose; 3-celled.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1 celled (when mature). Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious to eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 1 locular (though detectably trilocular in the very early stages of development). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1, or 3; when separate, free, or partially joined; apical. Stigmas 3. Placentation basal. Ovules in the single cavity (of the mature ovary) 1; funicled; ascending; non-arillate; anatropous to campylotropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Outer integument contributing to the micropyle. Embryo-sac development Polygonum-type. Polar nuclei fusing prior to fertilization. Antipodal cells formed; 3; not proliferating; ephemeral. Synergids pear-shaped. Endosperm formation nuclear.
Fruit non-fleshy; indehiscent; capsular-indehiscent (a utricle); enclosed in the fleshy perianth, or without fleshy investment (then surrounded by the winged bracteoles). Seeds non-endospermic. Perisperm present. Seeds with starch. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2. Embryo chlorophyllous; curved (semi-annular), or coiled.
Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols present, or absent; when present, quercetin. Ellagic acid absent (2 genera, 2 species). Betalains present. Anatomy non-C4 type (Basella).
Geography, cytology. Tropical. Tropical America, Africa, Asia. X = 11, 12.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Caryophylliflorae; Caryophyllales. Cronquist’s Subclass Caryophyllidae; Caryophyllales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; neither Rosid nor Asterid; Caryophyllales. Species 25. Genera 4; Anredera, Basella, Tournonia, Ullucus.
Illustrations. • Technical details (Anredera, Basella, Ullucus).
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’.
