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Synonyms: Carpinaceae Vest; Corylaceae Mirb., nom. cons.
Common name: Birch Family.
Number of genera 6. Number of species 150.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Fruit anthocarp; simple, or compound; diclesium, or pseudosamara; achenoconum (Alnus Spjut Fig. D-E & 3 families Betulaceae, Cannabaceae, Proteaceae); without persistent central column; within accessory organ(s); within bracts (foliaceous hull derived from 2 or 3 bracts); 1-seeded; 2-carpellate; without sterile carpels; apex not beaked; wall membranaceous, or hard, or woody; dehiscent, or indehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent passively; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp green; durable; without armature; with wing(s) (from accrescent perianth or bracteate parts), or without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. 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; in transection flattened, or terete (including sub); 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; dull, or shiny; surface unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface reticulate, or ribbed (longitudinally); 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; with wing(s), or without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades); thin, or membranous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve, or surrounding embryo (assumed). Endosperm development nuclear; thin, or trace; restricted to sheath around radicle.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.9–1 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; with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; with cotyledons containing oils; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; 0.8–0.9 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 4–5.5 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; entirely concealing hypocotyl-radicle, or partially concealing hypocotyl-radicle, or not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; moderately thick, or thick; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally cordate, or entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Pantemperate. New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Asia Major.
Notes
Tribes: Betuleae with Alnus & Betula, Carpineae with Carpinus & Ostrya with fruit subtended or almost enclosed in 2 or 3 leafy bracts, involucre foliaceous lobed, laciniate, or bladderlike; Coryleae with Ostryopsis & Corylus with fruit nut or 2 winged samara. Goldberg: nutlet or samara.
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Puerto Rico (PR).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Alnus spp.: USA state noxious weed: PR●. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Alnus incana subsp. tenuifolia (Nutt.) Breitung -- Alnus rhombifolia Nutt. -- Alnus rubra Bong. -- Alnus sinuata (Regel) Rydb. = Alnus viridis subsp. sinuata (Regel) A. Love & D. Love -- Alnus tenuifolia Nutt. = Alnus incana subsp. tenuifolia (Nutt.) Breitung -- Alnus viridis subsp. crispa (Aiton) Turrill -- Alnus viridis subsp. sinuata (Regel) A. Love & D. Love -- Alnus viridis subsp. viridis (Chaix) DC. -- Betula alleghaniensis Britton -- Betula lenta L. -- Betula nigra L. -- Betula papyrifera Marshall -- Betula pendula Roth -- Betula populifolia Marshall -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Alnus cordata (Loisel.) Dubyt -- Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. t -- Alnus incana (L.) Moencht -- Alnus jorullensis Kunth -- Alnus rubra Bong.t -- Betula alleghaniensis Britton -- Betula papyrifera Marshallt -- Betula pendula Rotht -- Betula pubescens Ehrh.t -- Carpinus betulus L.t -- Corylus avellana L.t -- Corylus maxima Mill. -- 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
Alnus Mill. -- Betula L. -- Carpinus L. -- Corylus L. -- Ostrya Scop., nom. cons. -- Ostryopsis Decne.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 225.
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, 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, Martin, A.C. 1946. The comparative internal morphology of seeds. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 36:513–660, 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.
Illustrations
Poor seed and acceptable fruit illustrations - Must clearly identify type disseminule Karen has illustrated. Some clearly are fruits - but are they entire or incomplete fruits?. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Schopmeyer, Wood, Jr. Seed illustration(s): Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Martin, Karen, Schopmeyer. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 062: Alnus orientalis Decne. (A-B),Betula ermanii Cham. (C-D), Carpinus caroliniana Walter (E-F), Corylus (rostrata) cornuta Marshall subsp. cornuta (I-J), Ostrya carpinifolia Scop.(K-L), Ostryopsis davidiana Decne. (G-H).
• Fruit. 1 of 10. Alnus × mayrii Callier ex C. K. Schneid.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 10. Alnus × mayrii Callier ex C. K. Schneid.: seeds. • Fruit. 3 of 10. Betula ermanii Cham.: fruiting head. • Seed. 4 of 10. Betula ermanii Cham.: seeds. • Embryo. 5 of 10. Alnus orientalis Decne.: embryo. • Embryo. 6 of 10. Betula ermanii Cham.: embryo. • Embryo. 7 of 10. Carpinus caroliniana Walter: embryo. • Embryo. 8 of 10. Corylus cornuta Marshall subsp. cornuta: embryo. • Embryo. 9 of 10. Ostrya carpinifolia Scop.: embryo. • Embryo. 10 of 10. Ostryopsis davidiana Decne.: 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’.
