The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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~ Toricelliaceae, Cornaceae sensu lato
Habit and leaf form. Small trees, or shrubs (the foliage blackening on drying). Leaves alternate; spiral; long petiolate; more or less sheathing. Leaf sheaths not tubular; with free margins. Leaves simple. Lamina entire. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire, or serrate, or dentate.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; anomocytic.
Adaxial hypodermis absent. Lamina dorsiventral; without secretory cavities.
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities absent. Cortical bundles absent. Medullary bundles absent. Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent.
Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes. The ultimate inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences racemes and (according to Airy Shaw 1973) panicles. Flowers mostly (bi-) bracteate; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; gamosepalous (minute). Corolla 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous; imbricate; regular. Petals sessile (ovate or oblong, reflexed).
Androecium 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; alternating with the corolla members; shortly filantherous (the filaments slender). Anthers dorsifixed, or basifixed (elongate-oblong); dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Pollen mostly shed in aggregates; in tetrads. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.
Gynoecium 2–3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 2–3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious; inferior. Ovary 2–3 locular. Epigynous disk absent (or obsolete). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 2–3 (erect or recurved); free. Stigmas 2–3 (linear or punctiform). Placentation axile to apical, or apical (?). Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; apotropous (the micropyle turned inwards); with dorsal raphe; anatropous.
Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe ((2–)3 locular, with one fertile dorsal and two sterile ventral locules, the septa marked by external grooves).
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. Madagascar.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Araliiflorae (re-assigned from Corniflorae); Araliales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Cornales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Asteranae; campanulid; Order Apiales (as synonym of Torricelliaceae?).
Species 8. Genera 1; only genus, Melanophylla.
Assignment to Araliiflorae is supported by rbcL sequence data.
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’.