The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
Including Sarcoccaceae Dulac
Habit and leaf form. Shrubs (mostly, or subshrubs), or trees (a few). Leaves opposite, or whorled (rarely spiral); leathery; simple. Lamina entire; lanceolate to ovate; palmately veined to parallel-veined; cross-venulate. Leaves stipulate. Stipules caducous (minute). Lamina margins entire, or dentate (obscurely). Vegetative buds scaly.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; paracytic.
Lamina dorsiventral. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells.
Stem anatomy. Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Nodes unilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Xylem with libriform fibres (non-septate); with vessels. Vessel end-walls simple. Primary medullary rays wide. Wood partially storied (VP, VPI); parenchyma paratracheal.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite, or monoecious, or andromonoecious, or gynomonoecious, or polygamomonoecious (? — ‘polygamous’).
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes. The terminal inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences terminal. Flowers minute, or small; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; pentacyclic. Free hypanthium absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; regular; persistent; imbricate. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous (the petals keeled within); valvate; regular; fleshy; persistent; accrescent.
Androecium 10. Androecial members free of the perianth, or free of the perianth and adnate (then the filaments of the antepetalous stamens adnate to the keels of the petals); free of one another; 2 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 10; diplostemonous; oppositisepalous; both alternating with and opposite the corolla members. Anthers slightly dorsifixed, or basifixed; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse. Pollen grains aperturate; (2–)3(–4) aperturate; shortly colpate, or colporate; 2-celled.
Gynoecium 5(–10) carpelled; apocarpous; eu-apocarpous, or semicarpous (sometimes basally united); superior. Carpel 1 ovuled. Placentation apical. Stigmas dry type; papillate; Group II type. Ovules pendulous; apotropous; with dorsal raphe; non-arillate; anatropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Outer integument not contributing to the micropyle. Embryo-sac development Polygonum-type. Polar nuclei fusing only after one has been fertilized, or fusing simultaneously with the male gamete (?). Antipodal cells formed; 3; not proliferating; uninucleate. Synergids pear-shaped. Endosperm formation nuclear.
Fruit non-fleshy (when divested of the fleshy perianth); an aggregate. The fruiting carpels not coalescing. The fruiting carpel indehiscent; an achene. Fruit enclosed in the fleshy perianth (i.e. enclosed by the accrescent corolla, and the head of fruits forming a pseudo-drupe). Seeds scantily endospermic, or non-endospermic. Endosperm oily. Cotyledons 2 (oily); plano-convex. Embryo straight.
Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.
Physiology, biochemistry. Nitrogen-fixing root nodules present. Not cyanogenic. Alkaloids present (one species). Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols present; kaempferol and quercetin. Ellagic acid present. Saponins/sapogenins absent. Aluminium accumulation not found. C3. C3 physiology recorded directly in Coriaria.
Geography, cytology. Temperate (warm), or sub-tropical to tropical. Mediterranean, mid-Eastern Eurasia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Central and western South America. X = 10.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Violiflorae (reassigned); Violales (? — Gadek et al 1996). Cronquist’s Subclass Magnoliidae; Ranunculales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Rosid; Eurosid I; Cucurbitales. Species 15. Genera 1; only genus, Coriaria.
Economic uses, etc. A few cultivated ornamentals. Foliage and fruits very poisonous.
Illustrations. • Technical details (Coriaria). • Technical details, from Lindley (Coriaria).
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’.
