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Common name: Brunellia Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 52.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; multiple; follicetum; without persistent central column; with styles(s); at apex to at base or nearly basal; not within accessory organ(s); less than 1 cm long; 0.2–2.4 cm long; 4–5-carpellate (2–3, really pistals); with carpels separate; with carpels separating at maturity; with carpels radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; dehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent but retaining seed(s); without replum. Epicarp durable; crustaceous; not glabrous (with hairs), or glabrous (without hairs); hairs short (& often irritating); hairs dense; hairs yellow, or red (dish); hairs not glandular; with armature; with lignified trichomes (& thick walled); without armature glochidiate; not smooth; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; thin to thick; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system; and endocarp sharply differentiated. Endocarp present; separating spontaneously from exocarp; thick and hard, or thin and cartilaginous; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without mechanism for seedling escape; without grooves; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril present; an arillike structure. Arillike structure falling with seed a subarillate raphe (exserted from opened ripe fruit & more or less persistent on funiculus and corky thickened). Seed larger than minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long; 1.5–5 mm long; elliptic, or oblong; 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; shiny; surface unsmooth; surface with depressed features, or merged raised features; surface alveolate (markedly); surface 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; red (dish), or brown (all shades); crustaceous, or hard, or thick; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Raphe conspicuous; texture as testa, or spongy arilloid tissue; longer than seed, or as long as seed; exerted from dehisced fruit. Endosperm copious; mealy, or fleshy, or hard; opaque (white); smooth; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.8 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate, or linear; with spatulate cotyledons; straight; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle, or abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle (gradual maybe best); without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.8 times length of embryo; as wide as hypocotyl-radicle, or somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 3.3 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; thin; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
New World. Middle America (southern), South America (to Bolivia and Peru).
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Brunellia Ruiz & Pav.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 540. Naranjo, H.L. & H. Huber. 1971. Anatomia comparativa de las semillas de Brunellia y Weinmannia con respecto a su posición sistematica. Pittieria 3:19–28.
General references
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Flora Neotropica. 1968–74. Nos. 1–14. Hafner Publishing Company, Darien and 1976-. Nos. 15-present. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx [monograph number], 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, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and no seed illustration. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Karen, Flora Neotropica [2]. Embryo illustration(s): Karen, Flora Neotropica [2]. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 156: Brunellia costaricensis (A-B).
• Fruit. 1 of 4. Brunellia racemifera Tul.: dehisced fruits. • Fruit. 2 of 4. Brunellia racemifera Tul.: fruit. • Seed. 3 of 4. Brunellia racemifera Tul.: seeds. • Embryo. 4 of 4. Brunellia racemifera Tul.: 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’.
