The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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Habit and leaf form. Trees; non-laticiferous and without coloured juice. Leaves large; alternate; chartaceous; petiolate; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; obovate; pinnately veined; cross-venulate; attenuate at the base. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes. The ultimate inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences terminal; brown-hirsute, terminal subscorpioid cymes. Flowers ebracteate; medium-sized to large; regular; irregularly cyclic; irregularly polycyclic. Free hypanthium absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 13–18; irregularly 3–5 whorled; anisomerous. Calyx 1 whorled; gamosepalous (entire and globose in bud, splitting irregularly into 2–4 lobes); persistent (at the base of the fruit). Corolla 11–14; irregularly 2–4 whorled; gamopetalous (with a short tube). Corolla lobes about the same length as the tube, or markedly longer than the tube. Corolla imbricate; regular.
Androecium 20–35. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another; irregularly 3 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 20–35; diplostemonous to polystemonous; filantherous (with filiform filaments). Anthers dorsifixed (near the base); dehiscing via longitudinal slits; latrorse; tetrasporangiate. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate (said to resemble Ehretia).
Gynoecium 2 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious to synstylovarious; superior. Ovary 1 locular; sessile. Gynoecium non-stylate. Styles 2; partially joined (near the base, the pair of branches incurved to form a horseshoe shape); apical. Stigmas 2; capitate. Placentation parietal (the two placentas intruded and forked). Ovules in the single cavity 4 (two per placenta); pendulous; anatropous; unitegmic.
Fruit fleshy to non-fleshy (the exocarp leathery); indehiscent; a drupe (or drupaceous). The drupes with one stone (laterally compressed, chanelled along the narrow sides, with a bony endocarp). Fruit 4 seeded. Seeds scantily endospermic. Embryo well differentiated (rather large). Cotyledons 2 (expanded). Embryo straight to curved (nearly straight).
Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.
Physiology, biochemistry. Aluminium accumulation not found.
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. West equatorial Africa.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli (gamopetalous,with unitegmic ovules). Dahlgren’s Superorder Solaniflorae; Boraginales, or Solanales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Violales. APG (1998) family of uncertain position at the highest group level. Species 2. Genera 1; only genus, Hoplestigma.
This description inadequate for reliable classification.
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: 17th June 2009. http://delta-intkey.com’.