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Synonyms: Doryanthaceae R. Dahlgren & Clifford; Dracaenaceae Salisb., nom. cons.; Nolinaceae Nakai; Phormiaceae J. Agardh; Sansevieriaceae Nakai; Yuccaceae J. Agardh
Common name: Century-plant Family.
Number of genera 18. Number of species 580.
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; capsule, or berry (some spp. of Yucca); loculicidal capsule, or septicidal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; without persistent central column; crowned by perianth; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded to many-seeded; 3-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style; without sterile carpels; apex not beaked; wall fleshy; indehiscent, or dehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly; at apex; without replum. Epicarp durable; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present, or absent; fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present, or absent; not separating from exocarp; thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; 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; in transection flattened (Seeds maybe flattened and plates-like, crescent shaped or semi-circular, but sometimes less compressed in Yucca); not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm, or endosperm and perisperm (some Yuccca spp.: perisperm may surround endosperm); without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; surface unsmooth; surface with depressed features; surface pitted (not sure); without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; without notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approach each other; without glands; without bristles; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; black; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm development helobial (Goldberg: Perhaps sometimes incorrectly reported as nuclear); copious; hard and cartilaginous (may be furrowed in some Yucca spp.); smooth, or corrugated (some Yucca spp.); without starch; with proteins, oils, and hemicellulose; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Perisperm opaque. Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.4 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; linear; straight; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 1 cotyledon. Cotyledons one and terminal with lateral plumule; not modified into scutellum; not circinately coiled. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; straight; not thickened. Plumule undeveloped, or moderately developed; lateral and not fitting into groove along terminal cotyledon.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan. New World, Old World (warm, mostly arid regions with only few species in distinctly temperate climates). North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Notes
Subfamilies: Agavoideae, Yuccoideae. Embryo 5 times longer than wide.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Camassia Lindl. spp. -- Cordyline australis (G. Forst.) Endl. -- Yucca elata Engelm. -- Yucca filamentosa L. -- Yucca L. spp. -- Yucca torreyi Shafer -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Agave cantula Roxb. -- Agave sisalana Perrinew -- Beaucarnea recurvata Lem. (other family classification = Ruscaceae) -- Cordyline australis (G. Forst.) Endl. (other family classification = Laxmanniaceae) -- Cordyline fruticosa (L.) A. Chev. (other family classification = Laxmanniaceae) -- Cordyline indivisa (G. Forst.) Steud. (other family classification = Laxmanniaceae) -- Cordyline terminalis Kunth = Cordyline fruticosa (L.) A. Chev. (other family classification = Laxmanniaceae) -- Dracaena draco (L.) L. (other family classification = Ruscaceae) -- Furcraea cabuya Trel. -- Nolina recurvata (Lem.) Hemsl. = Beaucarnea recurvata Lem. (other family classification = Ruscaceae) -- Sansevieria roxburghiana Schult. & Schult. f. (other family classification = Ruscaceae) -- 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
Agave L. -- Beaucarnea Lem. -- Beschorneria Kunth -- Calibanus Rose -- Cordyline Comm. ex R. Br., nom. cons. -- Dasylirion Zucc. -- Doryanthes Corrêa -- Dracaena Vand. ex L. -- Furcraea Vent. -- Hesperaloe Engelm. -- Manfreda Salisb. -- Nolina Michx. -- Phormium J. R. Forst. & G. Forst. -- Polianthes L. -- Prochnyanthes S. Watson -- Pseudobravoa Rose -- Sansevieria Thunb., nom. cons. -- Yucca L.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1217. Gentry, H.S. 1978. The Agaves of Baja California. Occas. Pap. Calif. Acad. Sci. 130:1–119.
General references
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Gaertner, J. 1788–1805. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum. The Author, Stuttgart, 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, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 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.
Illustrations
Poor fruit and seed drawings. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Cronquist, Gaertner. Seed illustration(s): Cronquist, Schopmeyer. Embryo illustration(s): Schopmeyer.
• Fruit. 1 of 8. Agave cerulata Trel.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 8. Agave cerulata Trel.: seeds. • Fruit. 3 of 8. Beaucarnea guatemalensis Rose: fruit. • Fruit and seed. 4 of 8. Cordyline cannifolia R. Br.: fruit and seed. • Seed. 5 of 8. Doryanthes excelsa Corrêa: seed. • Fruit. 6 of 8. Yucca elata Engelm.: fruit. • Seed. 7 of 8. Yucca elata Engelm.: seeds. • Embryo. 8 of 8. Yucca elata Engelm.: 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’.
