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Habit and leaf form. Leaves alternate; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire. Leaves stipulate (small), or exstipulate. Stipules if present, caducous.
Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; somewhat irregular to very irregular; zygomorphic. The floral irregularity involving the perianth and involving the androecium. Flowers neither papilionaceous nor pseudo-papilionaceous; cyclic; tetracyclic.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 8; 2 whorled; anisomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; unequal but not bilabiate; basally spurred; imbricate. Corolla 3; 1 whorled; polypetalous; contorted; somewhat unequal but not bilabiate; green; spurred to not spurred (the largest petal gibbous at its base).
Androecium 3–5, or 6. Androecial members free of the perianth; coherent; 2 adelphous (the filaments of the fertile stamens basally connate, separate from the single staminodal member). The androecial bundles alternating with the corolla members (?). Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes 1 (this across the flower from the spurred sepal). Stamens 3–5; isomerous with the perianth to diplostemonous. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical, or lateral (?). Stigmas truncate. Placentation axile. Ovules 2 per locule.
Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; a capsule. Capsules septicidal (3-valved). Seeds non-endospermic; conspicuously hairy. Cotyledons 2. Embryo straight.
Geography, cytology. Neotropical. Tropical. Northern tropical South America.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Rutiflorae; Polygalales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Polygalales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; fabid. APG IV Order Malpighiales.
Species 3. Genera 1; Euphronia.
General remarks. This inadequate description lacks information on “esoteric characters”, including pigments, anther development and embryology.
Illustrations. • Euphronia hirtelloides: Martius, Nova Gen. et Spec. Pl. Brasiliensium (1824).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or 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). See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 3rd September 2025. delta-intkey.com’.
