The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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~ Anacardiaceae
Habit and leaf form. Tall, buttressed trees. Leaves opposite; compound; pinnate (paripinnate, the leaflets opposite).
Leaf anatomy. Lamina probably with secretory cavities. Secretory cavities containing resin.
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities probably present; with resin. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Wood parenchyma paratracheal (sparse).
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Plants dioecious. Gynoecium of male flowers pistillodial.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in glomerules. Inflorescences (male and female) terminal and axillary; panicles of glomerules; with involucral bracts. Flowers minute; regular; 4–5 merous; cyclic.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8, or 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 4, or 5; 1 whorled; shortly gamosepalous (male), or polysepalous (female); imbricate. Corolla 4 (male), or 4–5 (female); 1 whorled; polypetalous; imbricate.
Androecium in males 8 (4+4). Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another; 2 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 8; isomerous with the perianth.
Gynoecium in female flowers 1 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium monomerous; of one carpel; superior. Carpel 1 ovuled.
Fruit non-fleshy. The fruiting carpel indehiscent. Dispersal unit the inflorescence (the ultimate branches of which are concrescent, forming a many-valved, woody, bracteate cupule — cf. Castanea). Seeds non-endospermic.
Geography, cytology. Australian. Tropical. Northern and Eastern Australia.
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 Anacardiaceae).
Species 2. Genera 1; only genus, Blepharocarya.
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’.