The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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Alternatively Rhizobolaceae
Including Simabaceae Horan. (p.p.)
Habit and leaf form. Trees (mostly), or shrubs (or undershrubs). Leaves evergreen; alternate (Anthodiscus), or opposite (Caryocar); leathery; petiolate; compound; digitately ternate, or bipinnate (to 5-foliolate). Lamina palmately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves stipulate, or exstipulate. Stipules when present, caducous. Lamina margins sub entire, or serrate to dentate. Domatia occurring in the family; manifested as hair tufts.
Leaf anatomy. Hydathodes commonly present. Mucilaginous epidermis present, or absent. Stomata present; anomocytic, or anisocytic, or paracytic.
The mesophyll with sclerencymatous idioblasts.
Stem anatomy. Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Nodes multilacunar. Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent. Xylem with fibre tracheids, or without fibre tracheids; with libriform fibres; with vessels. Vessel end-walls oblique; simple. Wood parenchyma apotracheal, or paratracheal.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite. Pollination cheiropterophilous (in Caryocar).
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes (sometimes condensed). The terminal inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences terminal. Flowers ebracteate; large; calyptrate (Anthodiscus), or not calyptrate; regular. Free hypanthium present to absent (the stamens ‘subperigynous’).
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10 (usually), or 12; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5(–6); 1 whorled; gamosepalous; regular; imbricate, or open in bud. Corolla 5(–6); 1 whorled; polypetalous, or gamopetalous (basally). Corolla lobes markedly longer than the tube. Corolla calyptrate (in Anthodiscus), or not calyptrate; imbricate; regular.
Androecium 50–200 (‘very many’). Androecial members branched (?); maturing centrifugally; free of the perianth; coherent; 1 adelphous, or 5 adelphous (shortly connate basally, into a ring or five bundles alternating with the corolla members). The androecial bundles when bundled, alternating with the corolla members. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens, or including staminodes (the inner filaments sometimes without anthers). Staminodes internal to the fertile stamens. Stamens 50–200 (‘very many’); polystemonous; oppositisepalous. Anthers dorsifixed; sub versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Pollen grains aperturate; (2–)3(–6) aperturate; (syn) colporate, or rugate.
Gynoecium 4–20 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth to increased in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 4–20 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious; superior. Ovary 4–20 locular (equalling G). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 4–20; free; apical. Stigmas 4–20. Placentation axile. Ovules 1 per locule; ascending (Hutchinson, Thonner); orthotropous to anatropous; bitegmic.
Fruit fleshy, or non-fleshy; indehiscent, or a schizocarp (then leathery). Mericarps 4–20 (?). Fruit usually a drupe (the fleshy mesocarp sometimes poisonous, sometimes edible). The drupes with separable pyrenes (‘mericarps’). Seeds thinly endospermic, or non-endospermic. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2 (small). Embryo with an enlarged, oily and proteinaceous, spirally twisted hypocotyl, and inflexed cotyledons.
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Arbutin absent.
Geography, cytology. Neotropical. Tropical. Tropical America.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli (?). Dahlgren’s Superorder Theiflorae; Theales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Theales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Rosid; Eurosid I; Malpighiales. Species 25. Genera 2; Anthodiscus, Caryocar.
Illustrations. • Technical details (Caryocar, Anthodiscus).
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’.
