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Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Many beneficial and detrimental plants move about as fruits and seeds. The bulk of agricultural commerce is in the form of fruits and seeds. Most weeds and invasive species also move around as fruits and seeds. To insure the value and quality of agricultural products and to prevent the introduction and establishment of weeds and invasive plants, they must be correctly identified. When faced with the identification of a completely unknown fruit or seed, seed analysts, port inspectors, scientists, and technicians attempt to identify it to family, then genus, and finally species. Shrinking the universe of possible candidates at each step reduces the difficulty of identification. There were no adequate tools or references for identification of all isolated fruits or seeds to family. This interactive Family Guide for Fruits and Seeds is the first comprehensive tool for identifying all fruits and seeds to family.
USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program, Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) taxonomy module (www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/index.pl) was the source of the familial nomenclature and circumscriptions and the accepted genera for each family. GRIN and our database were last synchronized in December 2003. At that time, there were 418 accepted families with 888 familial synonyms and 13,696 accepted genera. It was also used as the source of noxious weeds in the USA, at both federal and state levels, in February 2006.
This database and images were prepared using the fruits and seeds and literature available to the authors, principally the holdings of the USDA, ARS, U.S. National Seed Herbarium (BARC), Beltsville, Maryland.
The illustration used as the Intkey splash screen was prepared by Robert Gibbons of USDA, APHIS Plant Protection and Quarantine. The individual fruit and seed images are also attached to the appropriate families. The illustration contains the following species.
1. Abrus precatorius L.: seed. • 2. Lafoensia punicifolia DC.: seed. • 3. Welwitschia mirabilis Hook. f.: cone. • 4. Artedia squamata L.: fruit. • 5. Jatropha acanthophylla Loefgr.: seed. • 6. Papaver somniferum L.: seed. • 7. Tripterococcus brunonis Endl.: fruit. • 8. Kokia drynarioides (Seem.) Lewton: dehisced fruit. • 9. Peripterygium platycarpum (Gagn.) Sleumer: fruit. • 10. Davidsonia pruriens F. Muell.: fruit. • 11. Polygala cowellii (Britton) S. F. Blake: fruit. • 12. Neurada procumbens L.: fruit. • 13. Tourrettia lappacea Willd.: seed. • 14. Melodinus orientalis Blume: seed. • 15. Hymenosporum flavum (Hook.) F. Muell.: seed. • 16. Acanthocarpus preissii Lehm.: fruit. • 17. Strelitzia alba (L. f.) Skeels: seed. • 18. Ochna mossambicensis Klotzsch: fruits. • 19. Cochlospermum orinocense (Kunth) Steud.: seed. • 20. Garrya fremontii Torr.: fruiting head. • 21. Securidaca sylvestris Schltdl.: fruit. • 22. Loewia glutinosa Urb.: seed. • 23. Butomus umbellatus L.: seed. • 24. Afrobrunnichia erecta (Asch.) Hutch. & Dalz.: fruit. • 25. Martynia annua L.: fruit. • 26. Dictyoloma peruvianum Planch.: seed.