The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants | |
~ Escalloniaceae, Grossulariaceae sensu lato
Habit and leaf form. Prostrate shrubs (the robust, flexuous stems bearing short, ascending leafy branches); not resinous. Leaves alternate; thickish, glaucescent above; sessile (semiamplexicaul); non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; ‘obscurely nerved’. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins apically minutely tri- dentate.
Leaf anatomy. Lamina without secretory cavities.
Stem anatomy. Secretory cavities absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring (?).
Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary (at the apices of branchlets); regular; 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5 (small); 1 whorled; shortly gamosepalous (below); regular; persistent; imbricate. Corolla 5 (relatively large); 1 whorled; polypetalous; contorted; regular; fleshy to not fleshy (‘thickish’). Petals slightly clawed; entire (elliptical).
Androecium 5. Androecial members free of the perianth; all equal; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 5; isomerous with the perianth; oppositisepalous; alternating with the corolla members; filantherous (the filaments subulate). Anthers not becoming inverted during development; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; small, ovoid, extrorse.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious to eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1 (short, simple); apical. Stigmas 1; 3 lobed; capitate. Placentation axile. Ovules 30–50 per locule (‘many’); anatropous.
Fruit non-fleshy (the epicarp leathery, the endocarp crustaceous); dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules loculicidal and valvular (borne on a short, erect pedicel, the valves finally separating from the axis, to which the seeds long remain attached after the capsule has dehisced). Fruit many seeded. Seeds copiously endospermic. Endosperm oily. Testa smooth; black.
Geography, cytology. Neotropical and Antarctic. Pampas and Andean. Temperate. Temperate South America.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Tenuinucelli (?). Dahlgren’s Superorder Corniflorae (?); Cornales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Rosales. APG 3 core angiosperms; core eudicot; unplaced at Superordinal level (?); Order Escalloniales (as a synonym of Escalloniaceae?).
Species 1. Genera 1; only genus, Tribeles.
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’.