| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Panama-hat Family.
Number of genera 12. Number of species 190.
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) simple, or compound; 1 (-U); 1-pistillate (-U); with carpels nearly separate to base. Fruit anthocarp, or pericarpium; simple; berry (Evodianthus, Schultesiophytum, but not Spjut); berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; compound, or multiple; sorosus (Carludovica), or trymoconum (Cyclanthus Spjut only 2 families: Casuarinaceae & Cyclanthaceae); without persistent central column; with styles(s); at apex; within accessory organ(s), or not within accessory organ(s); within peduncle (this is really on not in peduncle), or bracts; imbricately arranged with conelike structure and within fleshy bracteoles; more than 1 but less than 10-seeded to many-seeded; several to many; 4-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp durable; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present. Endocarp absent. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril present, or absent; an arillike structure. Arillike structure falling with seed a caruncle (Ludovia integifolia (Woodson) Harling). Seed larger than minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long; 1.4–5 mm long; oblong, or circular (or sub), or irregular, or curved, or fusiform; in transection terete, or flattened; 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 discreet raised features, or merged raised features; surface alined granular, or tuberculate; surface longitudinally ridged, or reticulate; 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; glabrous; without wings, or with wing(s); 2-winged; with wings at both ends; with wings equally developed; with solid wing(s) similar to testa; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades); thin, or firm, or thick, or coriaceous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo. Raphe conspicuous (thickened); texture as testa; included in dehisced fruit. Endosperm development helobial; copious; soft to hard; opaque; smooth; without starch, or with starch (Dicranopygium); with often hemicellulose, oils, and proteins; 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); 0.1–0.2 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; basal; linear (containing raphides but not in endosperm); straight, or bent; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; with cotyledons containing starch; without stomata; not green; with 1 cotyledon. Cotyledons one and not modified into scutellum; not circinately coiled.
Distribution
New World. Middle America, South America.
Notes
Harling (1958) on page 37 has excellent seed drawings, monographed Cyclanthus, and noted fruits always berries. In each spadix, berries generally are united into one or more syncarpia of varying appearance, except berries are free in Evodianthus, Schultesiophyton, and a few species of Sphaeradenia. Fruit rather soft except uppermost where perianth, styles, and stigmas are borne - these parts contain sclerenchyma and become strongly lignified. Similar fruits are found in Monstera (Araceae) and Freycinetia (Pandanaceae). Embryo 2–4 times longer than wide.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ISTA listed seeds.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Carludovica palmata Ruiz & Pav. -- 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
Asplundia Harling, nom. cons. -- Carludovica Ruiz & Pav. -- Chorigyne R. Erikss. -- Cyclanthus Poit. -- Dianthoveus Hammel & Wilder -- Dicranopygium Harling -- Evodianthus Oerst. -- Ludovia Brongn., nom. cons. -- Schultesiophytum Harling -- Sphaeradenia Harling -- Stelestylis Drude -- Thoracocarpus Harling
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1087. Harling, G. 1958. Monograph of the Cyclanthaceae. Acta Horti Bergiani 18:1–425; Eriksson, R. 1989. Chorigyne, a new genus of the Cyclanthaceae from Central America. Nordic J. Bot. 9:31–45; Hammel, B.E. & G.J. Wilder. 1989. Dianthoveus: A new genus of Cyclanthaceae. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 76:112–123.
General references
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Dahlgren, R.M.T., H.T. Clifford and P.F. Yeo. 1985. The families of the monocotyledons, 520 pp. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 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, LeMaout, E. and J. Decaisne. 1876. A general system of botany, 1,065 p. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 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 seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Hammel & Wilder (1989), Eriksson (1989). Seed illustration(s): Harling (1958). Embryo illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne.
• Seed. 1 of 4. Carludovica palmata Ruiz & Pav.: seed. • Fruit. 2 of 4. Cyclanthus bipartitus Poit.: fruit. • Seed. 3 of 4. Cyclanthus bipartitus Poit.: seeds. • Embryo. 4 of 4. Carludovica sp.: 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’.
