The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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Alternatively Sarcospermaceae
~ Sapotaceae
Including Peroniaceae Dostál
Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs; laticiferous, or non-laticiferous and without coloured juice. Leaves opposite to whorled (opposite to subopposite, rarely subverticillate); leathery; petiolate (the petiole sometimes with a terminal pair of stipel-like appendages); not gland-dotted; simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined (often with large pits in the axils of the main nerves); cross-venulate. Leaves stipulate. Stipules intrapetiolar; free of one another; small, caducous. Lamina margins entire.
Stem anatomy. Cortical bundles absent. Medullary bundles absent. Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent. Xylem with fibre tracheids. Vessel end-walls simple.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes, or in panicles. Inflorescences axillary; axillary panicles or racemes. Flowers bracteate (the bracts minute, deltoid); small; regular; 5 merous; cyclic; pentacyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; polysepalous; regular; imbricate. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; gamopetalous (with a short tube); imbricate (the lobes spreading, rounded); regular.
Androecium 10. Androecial members adnate (to the corolla tube); markedly unequal; free of one another; 2 whorled. Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes 5; external to the fertile stamens (the outer whorl); non-petaloid (consisting of antherless filaments). Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous; opposite the corolla members; shortly filantherous. Anthers basifixed; non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; latrorse to extrorse; bilocular. Pollen grains aperturate; 4 aperturate; colporate.
Gynoecium 1–2 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1–2 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 1–2 locular; sessile. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1 (short and stout); attenuate from the ovary; apical. Stigmas 1; simple; truncate. Placentation when unilocular, basal to parietal; when bilocular, basal to axile. Ovules in the single cavity 1; 1 per locule; funicled; ascending; apotropous; anatropous.
Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe (ovoid to oblong, slightly bilobed); 1–2 seeded. Seeds non-endospermic. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2 (thick).
Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.
Geography, cytology. Paleotropical. Tropical. Southeast Asia and Malaysia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli (? - being gamopetalous!). Dahlgren’s Superorder Primuliflorae; Ebenales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Ebenales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; Asterid; unassigned to Euasterid I or Euasterid II; Ericales (as a synonym of Sapotaceae). Species 6. Genera 1; only genus, Sarcosperma.
Inadequate description.
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: 10th April 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.