The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Escalloniaceae, Grossulariaceae, Saxifragaceae
Habit and leaf form. Low shrubs. Plants non-succulent. Leptocaul. Mesophytic. Leaves evergreen; small; alternate; leathery; petiolate; non-sheathing; not gland-dotted; simple. Lamina entire; oblong, or ovate; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins doubly serrate. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem.
Stem anatomy. Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. ‘Included’ phloem absent.
Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in racemes. The ultimate inflorescence unit racemose. Inflorescences terminal; erect racemes. Flowers bracteate; small; regular; 4–5 merous; cyclic; pentacyclic. Free hypanthium present (?— with a short ‘calyx tube’).
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8, or 9; 2 whorled; isomerous, or anisomerous. Calyx 4, or 5; 1 whorled; shortly gamosepalous (basally). Calyx lobes markedly longer than the tube. Calyx regular; persistent; imbricate. Corolla 4; 1 whorled; polypetalous; imbricate; regular; white; deciduous (caducous). Petals clawed.
Androecium 8. Androecial members free of the perianth; coherent; 1 adelphous (the filaments very shortly connate); 2 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 8; diplostemonous; both alternating with and opposite the corolla members. Anthers basifixed; non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; latrorse. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate; colpate (?).
Gynoecium 4 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. Gynoecium apocarpous; eu-apocarpous; superior. Carpel sub non-stylate; apically stigmatic; 15–100 ovuled (‘many’). Placentation marginal (ventral). Ovules anatropous; unitegmic; embryology not recorded.
Fruit fleshy; an aggregate. The fruiting carpel dehiscent; a follicle. Fruit 15–100 seeded (‘many’). Seeds endospermic.
Geography, cytology. Temperate. Tasmania.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli, or Tenuinucelli (? — polypetalous, but exstipulate and with unitegmic ovules). Dahlgren’s Superorder Corniflorae (?); Cornales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Rosales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; unplaced at Superordinal level; Order Saxifragales.
Species 1. Genera 1; only genus, Tetracarpaea.
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’.