The Families of Flowering Plants
The Families of Flowering Plants |
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Habit and leaf form. Lianas. Climbing; stem twiners (the branch tips twining), or scrambling (the branch tips hooked). Stem growth conspicuously sympodial. Leaves alternate; spiral; petiolate; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined; cross-venulate. Leaves stipulate. Stipules caducous (minute). Domatia occurring in the family.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; actinocytic. Hairs present; glandular. Complex hairs present; peltate.
Adaxial hypodermis present. Lamina dorsiventral.
Stem anatomy. Cork cambium present; initially deep-seated. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. Xylem with fibre tracheids. Vessel end-walls very oblique; simple.
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in panicles, in spikes, and in cymes. The terminal inflorescence unit often apparently cymose (axillary or terminal). Inflorescences spikes, panicles or racemes representing lax or rarely condensed dichotomous cymes. Flowers small; regular to somewhat irregular, or very irregular. The floral irregularity involving the perianth (the calyx becoming very irregular in fruit). Flowers 5 merous; cyclic; tetracyclic.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 10; 2 whorled; isomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; gamosepalous; unequal but not bilabiate (markedly unequal in the fruit), or regular; persistent; accrescent (forming a winged crown for the floating fruit); imbricate. Corolla 5; 1 whorled; polypetalous, or gamopetalous (at the base). Corolla lobes markedly longer than the tube. Corolla contorted; more or less fleshy.
Androecium 10, or 5 (rarely). Androecial members adnate (to the base of the corolla); markedly unequal (5 somewhat larger), or all equal (when only 5); coherent (at the bases of the filaments); 1 adelphous; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 10, or 5; isomerous with the perianth, or diplostemonous; usually both alternating with and opposite the corolla members. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse, or latrorse. Pollen grains aperturate; 3(–4) aperturate; colporate.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels reduced in number relative to the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious; partly inferior. Ovary 1 locular. Styles 3; free to partially joined. Stigmas 3. Placentation basal. Ovules in the single cavity 1; ascending; non-arillate.
Fruit non-fleshy; indehiscent; a nut. Dispersal unit the nut with its crown of sepals. Dispersal by water. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm ruminate; starchy. Seeds with starch. Cotyledons 2.
Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.
Physiology, biochemistry. Proanthocyanidins present; cyanidin and delphinidin. Flavonols present; kaempferol, quercetin, and myricetin.
Geography, cytology. Tropical. Tropical Africa to Western Malaysia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli, or Tenuinucelli (?). Dahlgren’s Superorder Theiflorae; Theales. Cronquist’s Subclass Dilleniidae; Violales. APG (1998) Eudicot; core Eudicot; neither Rosid nor Asterid; Caryophyllales. Species 20. Genera 1; only genus, Ancistrocladus.
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: 9th September 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.