The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Chenopodiaceae, Amaranthaceae
Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Plants succulent. Annual. Leaves alternate; fleshy; simple; exstipulate.
Stem anatomy. Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring (with ‘normal stem anatomy’). ‘Included’ phloem absent. Xylem with libriform fibres. Sieve-tube plastids P-type; type III (a).
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants monoecious.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary (female flowers), or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’ (male flowers). Inflorescences of male flowers in strobilate, terminal spikes, the female flowers solitary in the 4–5 uppermost leaf axils.
Perianth sepaline (male flowers), or absent (female flowers); of male flowers, 4; 1 whorled. Calyx (in the male flowers only) 4; 1 whorled; polysepalous (membranous).
Androecium 4. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4; isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous; filantherous (the filaments long, filiform). Anthers versatile. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 6 aperturate; foraminate (the apertures operculate).
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious; superior. Ovary 1 locular. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 3 (finally exserted). Placentation basal. Ovules in the single cavity 1; campylotropous (?).
Fruit fleshy. Gynoecia of adjoining flowers combining to form a multiple fruit (the aggregate enclosed in the swollen stem apex, forming a berrylike structure).
Geography, cytology. Antarctic. Temperate. Patagonia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Caryophylliflorae; Caryophyllales. Cronquist’s Subclass Caryophyllidae; Caryophyllales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Caryophyllanae; Order Caryophyllales (as a synonym of Amaranthaceae).
Species 1. Genera 1; only genus, Halophytum.
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’.