The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Celastraceae, Saxifragaceae sensu lato, Parnassiaceae
Habit and leaf form. Diminutive herbs (with leaves brown-streaked from tannins). Plants more or less succulent. Annual. Leaves (sub) opposite, or alternate; simple. Lamina entire. Leaves exstipulate.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening absent (?).
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary; terminal; ebracteolate; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic, or pentacyclic.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or sepaline (the corolla minute or missing); 5–10; 1 whorled, or 2 whorled. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; regular. Corolla when present, 1–5; 1 whorled; when recognisable, polypetalous (the petals tiny, round to spathulate).
Androecium 10. Androecial members free of the perianth and adnate; free of one another; 2 whorled. Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes 5; external to the fertile stamens (constituting an outer, epipetalous whorl). Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous (very short). Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.
Gynoecium 3–4 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious; inferior. Ovary 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 3–4; free; shorter than the ovary (very short). Stigmas 3; commissural (along with the styles); capitate. Placentation parietal. Ovules in the single cavity 30–100 (‘many’).
Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule (globose, thin-walled). Capsules loculicidal. Seeds scantily endospermic (the endosperm layer one cell thick). Perisperm absent.
Geography, cytology. Holarctic and Neotropical. Southern U.S.A., Mexico, Chile.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli (? — apetalous or polypetalous). Dahlgren’s Superorder Theiflorae; Droserales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Rosales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; fabid; Order Celastrales (as a synonym of Celastraceae).
Species 1. Genera 1; Lepuropetalon.
Cf. Parnassiaceae.
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’.