The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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~ Ranunculaceae
Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Perennial; rhizomatous. Leaves simple. Lamina dissected; palmatifid. Leaves exstipulate.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; anomocytic.
Stem anatomy. Primary vascular tissue in scattered bundles. Medullary bundles present. Secondary thickening absent. Sieve-tube plastids S-type.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite. Floral nectaries absent.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary; small; partially acyclic, or acyclic. The androecium acyclic and the gynoecium acyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent.
Perianth sepaline; 3; petaloid. Calyx 3 (of petaloid sepals); 1 whorled; polysepalous; not persistent (caducous).
Androecium 30–100 (‘many’). Androecial sequence determinable. Androecial members maturing centripetally; free of the perianth; free of one another. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 30–100 (‘many’); polystemonous. Anthers non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate.
Gynoecium 30–100 carpelled (‘many’). Carpels increased in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium apocarpous; eu-apocarpous; superior. Carpel 2 ovuled. Ovules bitegmic.
Fruit fleshy; an aggregate. The fruiting carpels coalescing into a secondary syncarp (this bright red). The fruiting carpel indehiscent; drupaceous. Fruit (drupelet) 1 seeded. Seeds endospermic. Embryo achlorophyllous (1/1).
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic.
Geography, cytology. Temperate. One species in Japan, the other in Eastern North America. 2n = 26.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Ranunculiflorae (?); Ranunculales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Magnoliidae; Ranunculales. APG 3 core angiosperms; peripheral eudicot; Superorder Ranunculanae; Order Ranunculales (as a synonym of Ranunculaceae).
Species 2. Genera 1; only genus, Hydrastis.
This description is hopelessly inadequate.
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’.