The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Aquifoliaceae, more recently Paracryphiaceae
Habit and leaf form. Trees and shrubs. Mesophytic. Leaves evergreen; alternate, or opposite, or whorled; leathery; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins entire, or dentate. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem.
Stem anatomy. Xylem with tracheids.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes. The ultimate inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences (sub-) terminal; racemes. Flowers bracteate (the bracts caducous); regular; cyclic; tetracyclic, or polycyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or sepaline (corolla sometimes absent); 8, or 4; 4 whorled, or 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 4; 2 whorled; polysepalous; regular; not persistent (caducous); imbricate. Corolla when present, 4; 2 whorled; polypetalous; regular; fleshy; deciduous.
Androecium 4–12. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4–12; isomerous with the perianth to triplostemonous; petaloid, or filantherous, or with sessile anthers (the filaments short and thick or obsolete, the connective thick, the anther elongate or thick and petaloid). Anthers introrse (short), or latrorse (elongate). Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; porate, or colporate (?).
Gynoecium 2 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 2 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 2 locular. Gynoecium non-stylate. Stigmas 1; capitate. Ovules 1 per locule; pendulous; non-arillate.
Fruit fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe (asymmetrically ovoid). The drupes with separable pyrenes, or with one stone (with 1–2 bony pyrenes). Seeds endospermic. Endosperm ruminate.
Geography, cytology. Tropical. Eastern Malaysia, Queensland, New Caledonia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli (?). Dahlgren’s Superorder Corniflorae; Cornales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Celastrales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Asteranae; campanulid; Order Paracryphiales (?).
Species 7. Genera 1; only genus, Sphenostemon.
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’.