The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Cornaceae
Habit and leaf form. Glabrous trees, or shrubs, or lianas. Self supporting, or epiphytic, or climbing. Leaves alternate (the axillary buds sometimes becoming much displaced); spiral; leathery (glabrous); petiolate; sheathing to non-sheathing (subvaginate); not gland-dotted; simple. Lamina conspicuously asymmetric, or not conspicuously asymmetric. Leaves exstipulate (but the petole base sometimes prolonged upwards into a short, ligule-like process). Vegetative buds scaly.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; mainly confined to one surface (the lower); cyclocytic.
Adaxial hypodermis present. Lamina dorsiventral. The mesophyll with sclerencymatous idioblasts. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells.
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities absent. Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Nodes tri-lacunar, or multilacunar. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Xylem with vessels. Vessel end-walls horizontal; scalariform. Wood parenchyma apotracheal.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Plants dioecious. Gynoecium of male flowers absent.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in panicles; small; regular. Free hypanthium present (the petals ‘inserted on the calyx’).
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla (male, female), or sepaline (female flowers sometimes apetalous); 5, or 10; 1 whorled, or 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx of both male and female flowers 5; 1 whorled; gamosepalous (minute in male flowers, with an ovoid tube in females); regular. Corolla in male flowers, and when present in females, 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous; (sub) imbricate; regular.
Androecium in male flowers, 5. Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous. Anthers dorsifixed; versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous (but pseudomonomerous); synstylovarious to eu-syncarpous; inferior. Ovary 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 3; free, or partially joined; short. Stigmas 3. Placentation apical. Ovules pendulous; anatropous.
Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a berry; 1 seeded (ovoid, unilocular). Seeds copiously endospermic. Embryo minute.
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Iridoids detected (giselinoside); ‘Route I’ type (‘normal’). Proanthocyanidins absent. Ellagic acid absent.
Geography, cytology. Antarctic. Temperate. New Zealand, Chile, Southeast Brazil.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Araliiflorae (re-assigned from Corniflorae, as supported by rbcL sequence comparisons); Araliales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Cornales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Asteranae; campanulid; Order Apiales.
Species 6. Genera 1; only genus, Griselinia.
Dawson (1966), Tuatara 14, 121–129 (not seen); Philipson (1967).
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’.