The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
Excluding Behniaceae, Ripogonaceae
Habit and leaf form. Scandent shrubs and herbs, or lianas. Perennial; with neither basal nor terminal aggregations of leaves; rhizomatous, or tuberous. Climbing; tendril climbers (the tendrils from the petiole bases), or petiole twiners (the tendrils sometimes reduced to points). Mesophytic and xerophytic. Leaves evergreen; alternate (mostly), or opposite; usually leathery; petiolate to subsessile; sheathing (rarely), or non-sheathing. Leaf sheaths when present, with free margins. Leaves foetid, or without marked odour; simple (though the tendrils, sometimes called ‘stipules’, have also been seen as representing the midveins of lateral leaflets). Lamina entire; lanceolate, or ovate; one-veined, or palmately veined (curved-convergent); cross-venulate; cordate, or hastate, or attenuate at the base. Leaves stipulate (ostensibly, if the tendril bases be so interpreted), or exstipulate. Lamina margins entire.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; anomocytic. Hairs present, or absent.
Lamina dorsiventral. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (Smilax). Vessels present, or absent; end-walls scalariform.
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities present. Cork cambium present. Secondary thickening absent. Xylem with vessels. Vessel end-walls scalariform.
Root anatomy. Root xylem with vessels; vessel end-walls scalariform.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers functionally male, or functionally female. Plants dioecious. Pollination entomophilous.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary, or aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes, or in racemes, or in spikes, or in umbels, or in verticils. Inflorescences not scapiflorous; terminal, or axillary; often of one or more superimposed verticils appearing as racemes, spikes or umbels. Flowers regular; 3 merous; cyclic. Perigone tube present (short or long), or absent.
Perianth of ‘tepals’; 6; free, or joined; 2 whorled; isomerous; petaloid (but fairly inconspicuous); similar in the two whorls to different in the two whorls (the inner members more or less reduced, sometimes fringed).
Androecium 3 (rarely), or 6 (usually), or 9–18 (rarely). Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another, or coherent; sometimes 1 adelphous (filaments fused into a tube or column); (1–)2(–6) whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 6 (usually), or 3, or 9, or 12, or 15, or 18; isomerous with the perianth to polystemonous; filantherous. Anthers basifixed; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse, or latrorse; unilocular; tetrasporangiate. The endothecial thickenings spiral. Microsporogenesis successive. The initial microspore tetrads isobilateral. Tapetum glandular. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains nonaperturate (or indistinctly so); 2-celled.
Gynoecium 1 carpelled (rarely), or 3 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth, or reduced in number relative to the perianth (rarely). The pistil 1 celled, or 3 celled. Gynoecium monomerous (rarely), or syncarpous; of one carpel (rarely), or synovarious to synstylovarious; superior. Carpel stylate; apically stigmatic; when monocarpellary 1 ovuled, or 2 ovuled. Ovary when syncarpous 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate, or non-stylate to stylate. Styles 3; free (usually), or partially joined; apical. Stigmas dry type; papillate; Group II type. Placentation axile. Ovules 1 per locule, or 2 per locule; pendulous; non-arillate; orthotropous (usually), or hemianatropous, or campylotropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Embryo-sac development Polygonum-type. Endosperm formation nuclear.
Fruit fleshy. The fruiting carpel when monocarpellary, baccate. Fruit when syncarpous (i.e. usually) indehiscent; a berry; usually 3 seeded. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Embryo well differentiated (mostly small). Embryo straight. Testa without phytomelan.
Seedling. Hypocotyl internode present (not elongated, but a long epicotyl present). Seedling collar not conspicuous. Cotyledon hyperphyll compact; non-assimilatory. Coleoptile absent. Seedling cataphylls present. First leaf dorsiventral. Primary root persistent.
Physiology, biochemistry. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols present, or absent; when present, quercetin, or kaempferol and quercetin. Ellagic acid absent. Saponins/sapogenins present. C3. C3 physiology recorded directly in Smilax. Anatomy non-C4 type (Smilax).
Geography, cytology. Holarctic, Paleotropical, Neotropical, Cape, and Australian. Temperate (warm), or sub-tropical to tropical. Widespread, tropical, subtropical and warm temperate. X = 10, 13–16.
Taxonomy. Subclass Monocotyledonae. Dahlgren et al. Superorder Liliiflorae; Dioscoreales. APG 3 core angiosperms; Superorder Lilianae; non-commelinid Monocot; Order Liliales.
Species 370. Genera 3; Heterosmilax, Pseudosmilax, Smilax.
Illustrations. • Technical details: Smilax (Lindley). • Technical details: Smilax.
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’.
