The families of flowering plants
The families of flowering plants | |
Habit and leaf form. Trees and shrubs; bearing essential oils. Self supporting, or climbing; the climbers scrambling. Leaves opposite; petiolate; gland-dotted; aromatic, or without marked odour (?); simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves exstipulate. Lamina margins dentate. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; paracytic.
Adaxial hypodermis absent. Lamina dorsiventral. The mesophyll with spherical etherial oil cells.
Stem anatomy. Cork cambium present; initially superficial. Nodes unilacunar (with two traces). Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Xylem with fibre tracheids. Vessel end-walls scalariform. Sieve-tube plastids S-type.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite, or polygamomonoecious, or polygamodioecious.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in cymes, or in racemes, or in panicles. The ultimate inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences terminal, or axillary; racemes or panicles. Flowers bracteate; bracteolate (the numerous bracteoles passing imperceptibly into the perianth); small; regular; partially acyclic, or acyclic. The androecium acyclic, or the perianth acyclic and the androecium acyclic. Floral receptacle not markedly hollowed (more or less flat).
Perianth sepaline (inseparable from ‘bracteoles’); 10–50 (decussate pairs, or spiral); free.
Androecium (7–)10–20(–23). Androecial members maturing centripetally; free of the perianth; free of one another; 2–3 seriate, spiralled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 7–23; filantherous. Anthers basifixed; non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse to latrorse; appendaged (via a shortly produced, tonguelike connective). Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 2 aperturate (Piptocalyx), or 8–12 aperturate (Trimenia); more or less foraminate (with two irregular unthickened areas in Piptocalyx, 8–12 foramina in Trimenia).
Gynoecium 1 carpelled (ostensibly), or 2 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium monomerous (pseudomonomerous, by abortion?), or syncarpous; of one carpel, or eu-syncarpous; superior. Carpel (if considered monomerous) non-stylate; apically stigmatic; 1 ovuled. Placentation apical. Ovary if considered syncarpous, 1 locular. Gynoecium non-stylate. Placentation apical. Ovules in the single cavity 1; pendulous; non-arillate; anatropous.
Fruit fleshy. The fruiting carpel indehiscent; if considered monomerous, drupaceous. Fruit if considered syncarpous, indehiscent; a drupe (with thin, slimy flesh); 1 seeded (compressed). Seeds endospermic. Embryo straight.
Physiology, biochemistry. Aluminium accumulation demonstrated.
Geography, cytology. Sub-tropical to tropical. Eastern Malaysia, Eastern Australia, Pacific.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Magnoliiflorae; Laurales. Cronquist’s Subclass Magnoliidae; Laurales. APG 3 peripheral angiosperms; Superorder Austrobaileyanae; Order Austrobaileyales.
Species 5. Genera 1, or 2; Piptocalyx (= Trimenia), Trimenia.
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 or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, genera included in each family, and classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo; Cronquist; APG).
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 19th December 2012. http://delta-intkey.com’.