| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Turnipwood Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 1 (Akania lucens (F.Muell.) Airy Shaw).
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) 1; 1-pistillate. Fruit pericarpium; simple; capsule; loculicidal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 6-seeded (up to); from 1–5 cm long; 2–2.5 cm long; 3-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; wall leathery to woody; dehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present; 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; less than 1 mm long to 10 to less than 25 mm long; 1–15 mm long; circular, or oblong; in transection lenticular to turtle-shaped; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; surface unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface reticulate, or wrinkled; 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; dirty- yellow, or brown (all shades); crustaceous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm copious; hard (coriaceous), or fleshy; smooth; with oils; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; with odor of bitter-almond.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.8–0.9 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, or spatulate cotyledons; straight; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; 7–10 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; massive; flat; smooth; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed ("very short"); straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Old World. Asia Minor (eastern).
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Akania Hook. f.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 795. Doweld, A.B. 1996b. The systematic relevance of fruit and seed anatomy and morphology of Akania (Akaniaceae). Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 120:379–389.
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, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Acceptable seed illustration. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Doweld (1996). Seed illustration(s): Karen, Doweld (1996). Embryo illustration(s): Karen, Doweld (1996). Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 252: Akania hillii Hook. f. (A-B).
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Akania lucens (F. Muell.) Airy Shaw: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Akania lucens (F. Muell.) Airy Shaw: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Akania lucens (F. Muell.) Airy Shaw: 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’.
