The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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Alternatively Phellineaceae~ Aquifoliaceae
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs; non-laticiferous and without coloured juice. Leaves evergreen; (pseudo-) whorled, or alternate (more or less crowded towards the branch tips); leathery; simple. Lamina entire. Leaves exstipulate.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent. Xylem with tracheids. Wood parenchyma scanty paratracheal.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants dioecious. Female flowers with staminodes. Gynoecium of male flowers pistillodial.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in panicles. Inflorescences axillary; racemes or panicles or mixed panicles. Flowers regular; 4–6 merous; cyclic. Free hypanthium absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8, or 10, or 12; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 4–6 (small); 1 whorled; gamosepalous (more or less connate at the base), or polysepalous (?); regular; open in bud. Corolla 4–6; 1 whorled; polypetalous (the petals with a small, inflexed apiculus); valvate; fleshy.
Androecium 4–6. Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4–6; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; tetrasporangiate. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate (colporoidate).
Gynoecium 2–5 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth to isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 2–5 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious, or eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 2–5 locular; sessile. Gynoecium more or less non-stylate (the stigma sessile). Stigmas 1 (lobed). Placentation axile to apical. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; slightly campylotropous, or hemianatropous.
Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe. The drupes with separable pyrenes (as many stones as locules). Fruit 2–5 seeded. Seeds copiously endospermic.
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. New Caledonia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli (?). Dahlgren’s Superorder Corniflorae, or Asteriflorae (according to rbcL sequencing); Asterales; formerly Cornales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Celastrales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Asteranae; campanulid; Order Asterales.
Species 12. Genera 1; only genus, Phelline.
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’.