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Common name: Maple Family.
Number of genera 2. Number of species 113.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; schizocarp; samarium (Acer Spjut Fig. 47D); without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); more than 1 but less than 10-seeded, or 1-seeded; (1–)2-seeded; 2-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity, or separating at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style, or separating at style (Cronquist: Eventually separating from persistent carpophore); without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; wall leathery, or membranaceous; indehiscent. Epicarp brown (all shades), or green; durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; smooth; with wing(s); 2-winged (usually and a schizocarp of 2, 1-seeded mericarps); with wing(s) lateral; without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp absent. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; thin, or woody; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; smooth; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute; ovate; in transection compressed; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity without food reserves (absent from mature seed); without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present, or absent; vestigial (thin and function assumed by pericarp); without embryo surrounded and capped by viscid tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; surface smooth, or unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface reticulate, or wrinkled (slightly); with crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; with notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approaching each other; without glands; without bristles; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; thin; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.6 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate; with investing cotyledons; bent, or flatly coiled (circinate); without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; with cotyledons containing oils, or starch; without stomata; green (cotyledons); with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.6 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 4 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; obliquely incumbent to hypocotyl-radicle; thin; irregularly-folded, or convoluted; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; not thickened.
Distribution
Pantemperate (northern). New World, Old World. North America, Europe, Asia Major.
Notes
Spjut labelled one of these two fruit halves as "fruitlet".
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), New Hampshire (NH).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Acer platanoides L.: USA state noxious weed: MA●, NH●. -- Acer pseudoplatanus L.: USA state noxious weed: CT●, MA●. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Acer glabrum Torr. -- Acer macrophyllum Pursh -- Acer negundo FL. -- Acer pensylvanicum L. -- Acer platanoides L. -- Acer pseudoplatanus L. -- Acer rubrum L. -- Acer saccharinum L. -- Acer saccharum Marshall -- Acer spicatum Lam. -- Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala (Maxim.) Wesm. -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Acer campestre L.t -- Acer ginnala Maxim. -- Acer negundo L.t -- Acer palmatum Thunb.t -- Acer platanoides L.t -- Acer pseudoplatanus L.t -- Acer rubrum L.t -- Acer saccharinum L.t -- Acer saccharum Marshallt -- Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala (Maxim.) Wesm. = Acer ginnala Maxim. -- Symbols: aagricultural and vegetable seeds (Table 2A Part 1); ttree and shrub species (Table 2A Part 2); fflower, spice, herb, and medicinal seeds (Table 2A Part 3); wweed seeds. -- Last updated September 2008.
Accepted genera
Acer L. -- Dipteronia Oliv.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 801.
General references
Corner, E.J.H. 1976. The seeds of Dicots, esp. vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, New York, Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Goldberg, A. 1986 (dicots) and 1989 (monocots). Classification, evolution, and phylogeny of the familes of Dicotyledons. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 58 for dicots (314 pp.) and 71 for monocots (74 pp.). [Goldberg's illustrations are reproduced from older publications and these should be consulted], Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 and amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, Schopmeyer, C.S. 1974. Seeds of Woody plants in the United States. Agric. Handb. 450:1–883, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182, Wood, C.E., Jr. 1974. A student's atlas of flowering plants: Some dicotyledons of eastern North America, 120 pp. Harper and Row, New York, Mirle, C. and R.J. Burnham. 1999. Identification of asymmetrically winged samaras from the Western Hemisphere. Brittonia 51:1–14.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and poor illustrations of Acer. Fruit sample of Dipteronia in (BARC). Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Schopmeyer, Spjut, Wood, Jr. [entire fruit of many Acer spp. but no entire fruit of Dipteronia]. Seed illustration(s): Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 255: Acer tegmentosum Maxim. (A-B), Dipteronia sinensis Oliver (C-D).
• Fruit. 1 of 8. Acer campestre L.: fruits. • Fruit. 2 of 8. Acer okamotoanum Nakai: fruits. • Seed. 3 of 8. Acer okamotoanum Nakai: seed. • Fruit. 4 of 8. Acer duplicatoserratum Hayata: fruits. • Fruit. 5 of 8. Dipteronia sinensis Oliv.: fruit. • Seed. 6 of 8. Dipteronia sinensis Oliv.: seed. • Embryo. 7 of 8. Acer spicatum Lam.: embryo. • Embryo. 8 of 8. Dipteronia sinensis Oliv.: embryo.
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, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2000 onwards. Family guide for fruits and seeds: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 12th April 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
