The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs, or lianas; not resinous. Leaves opposite, or whorled; petiolate; simple. Lamina dissected, or entire; when dissected, pinnatifid (lobed); pinnately veined. Leaves stipulate. Stipules interpetiolar; rigid or foliaceous. Lamina margins entire, or crenate.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; paracytic.
Lamina dorsiventral; with secretory cavities. Secretory cavities containing mucilage; lysigenous. The mesophyll containing calcium oxalate crystals. The mesophyll crystals druses and solitary-prismatic.
Stem anatomy. The cortex containing cristarque cells. Nodes tri-lacunar. Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent. Xylem with tracheids; with vessels. Vessel end-walls simple (usually), or scalariform. Wood parenchyma apotracheal.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite, or polygamomonoecious, or polygamodioecious.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in panicles. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; panicles or racemes. Flowers small; regular, or somewhat irregular.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8–10(–13); 2 whorled; isomerous, or anisomerous. Calyx 4, or 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous (the sepals small); unequal but not bilabiate; imbricate. Corolla 4–5(–8); 1 whorled; imbricate, or contorted.
Androecium 15–30, or 30–170 (to ‘many’). Androecial members free of the perianth, or adnate (to the corolla, below); free of one another, or coherent (below). Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 15–30, or 30–170; triplostemonous, or polystemonous. Anthers basifixed (small); non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse (the thecae sharply distinct), or latrorse (the thecae back to back and latrorse, Froesia); bilocular; tetrasporangiate. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colporate.
Gynoecium 2–3 carpelled, or 3 carpelled, or 7–11(–13) carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth to increased in number relative to the perianth. The pistil when syncarpous, 2–3 celled, or 7–11(–13) celled. Gynoecium apocarpous (Froesia), or syncarpous; eu-apocarpous (Froesia, with three distinct carpels), or synovarious; superior. Carpel in Froesia stylate; 2 ovuled. Ovary when syncarpous, 2–3 locular, or 7–11(–13) locular (reflecting the carpel number). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 2–3, or 7–11(–13) (one per carpel); free (linear). Stigmas 2–3, or 7–11(–13); obliquely peltate. Placentation when syncarpous, basal to axile. Ovules 2 per locule; ascending; anatropous.
Fruit fleshy. The fruiting carpel in Froesia, dehiscent, or indehiscent (?); baccate. Fruit dehiscent (at full maturity), or indehiscent; a capsule (baccate), or a berry. Capsules when dehiscent, valvular. Fruit usually only 1–4 seeded (often only 1–2 locular through abortion of the others). Seeds non-endospermic; conspicuously hairy (usually, tomentose), or not conspicuously hairy (Froesia). Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2 (thick). Embryo straight.
Seedling. Germination cryptocotylar.
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic.
Geography, cytology. Neotropical. Tropical. Tropical South America.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli (? — stipules, polypetalous, etc.). Dahlgren’s Superorder Theiflorae; Theales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Theales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Rosid; Eurosid I; Malpighiales. Species 50. Genera 4; Froësia, Lacunaria, Quiina, Touroulia.
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’.