The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Meliaceae, Rutaceae
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs; bearing essential oils. Mesophytic. Leaves alternate, or opposite; petiolate; non-sheathing; gland-dotted; aromatic; compound; pinnate, or ternate, or unifoliolate; exstipulate. Lamina margins of the leaflets entire. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem.
Leaf anatomy. Mucilaginous epidermis often present.
Lamina with secretory cavities. Secretory cavities containing oil.
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities present; with oil. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Vessels without vestured pits.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in panicles. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary. Flowers small; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; pentacyclic. Hypogynous disk present; annular (the disk large, cupular, crenate, enclosing the ovary).
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous, or gamosepalous; regular; imbricate, or valvate. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous (the petals sometimes adaxially hairy); imbricate; regular.
Androecium 10. Androecial members free of the perianth (sometimes ‘adnate to the disk’); 2 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens, or including staminodes. Staminodes when present, 5; internal to the fertile stamens (the members of the inner androecial whorl). Stamens 5, or 10; isomerous with the perianth, or diplostemonous; oppositisepalous; both alternating with and opposite the corolla members. Anthers dorsifixed; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; sometimes with a produced connective. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled, or 5 carpelled. The pistil 2 celled, or 5 celled. Gynoecium apocarpous to syncarpous; semicarpous, or synstylovarious to eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 3 locular, or 5 locular. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 1; 5 lobed; peltate. Placentation axile. Ovules 2–8 per locule (biseriate); with ventral raphe; non-arillate; anatropous, or hemianatropous (?).
Fruit non-fleshy; not an aggregate, or an aggregate to not an aggregate; dehiscent; a capsule (woody). Capsules septicidal, or loculicidal. Seeds non-endospermic; compressed; winged. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2. Embryo curved.
Physiology, biochemistry. Cyanogenic. Proanthocyanidins present. Saponins/sapogenins present, or absent. Aluminium accumulation possibly demonstrated.
Geography, cytology. Sub-tropical to tropical. South India and Ceylon, East Malaysia, Eastern Australia, New Caledonia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Rutiflorae; Rutales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Sapindales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; malvid; Order Sapindales (as a synonym of Rutaceae).
Species 17. Genera 2; Flindersia, Chloroxylon.
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’.