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Common name: Manatee-grass Family.
Number of genera 5. Number of species 16.
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) simple, or compound; 1 to 2–5; 1–2-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium, or anthocarp (Thassodendron); simple; achene (Syringodium), or drupe (Amphibolis); compound; catoclesium (Thalassodendron); without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s), or within accessory organ(s); within fleshy inner bracts; persistent; 1-seeded; 1-seeded; less than 1 cm long; 0.2–0.8 cm long; 2-carpellate (but each forming a pistil with a terminal style); with carpels separate; with carpels not radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; apex beaked; wall crustaceous, or leathery; indehiscent. Epicarp black, or brown (all shades); evanscent, or durable; hard (Halodule); without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp absent, or present; fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; bony, or thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; not smooth; with irregularly sculptures; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; with mechanism for seedling escape (endocarp opens by a slender hinged valve to let seed germinate); without grooves; 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; straight; in transection compressed to terete (sub); not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without apparent food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; surface unsmooth; surface with depressed features, or merged raised features; surface grooved; surface reticulate, or ribbed, 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; glabrous; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; thick; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo. Endosperm development helobial (Haynes & Holm-Nielsen), or nuclear (Cymodocea); without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; completely filling testa (no food reserve); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 1 cotyledon.
Distribution
Pantropical and pansubtropical. New World, Old World. Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Notes
Fruit indehiscent, either with stony endocarp (Cymodocea, Halodule Syringodium) or viviparous (Amphibolus & Thalassodendron). Amphibolus has fruit of 1 ripened ovary, with above its base 4 pectinate, spreading lobes of pericarp nature, germinating immediately on mother plant. Thalassodendron false fruit of 2 fertilized ovaries (1 usually aborted) and fleshy inner bract; often germinating insitu with seedling floating free. Syringodium filiforme, 1-seeded without aborted fruitlet. Halodule fruit with 2 free ovaries per flower & 1 long style. Cymodocea fruit stony pericarp, semicircular to semiovate or elliptic in outline, laterally compressed, with dorsal ridges and a beak. Syringodium fruit stony pericarp, obliquely ellipsoid or obovoid, quadrangular in transection and dorsally with inconspicuopus, 4–7 mm long, median ridge; rostrum short and bifid. Pericarp reniform, stony, and compressed = achene: Cymodocea, Halodule, Syringodium; pericarp 2-parted, exocarp fleshy and endocarp stony [drupelike] to us this is anything but an achene, likely drupelike; Amphibolis.; or false fruit = fleshy bract, enclosing fertilized ovaries. Neither Spjut nor Goldberg covered this family. [Goldberg had "Cymodoaceae" in Zannichelliaceae]. Embryo 2.2–3 mm long.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Amphibolis C. Agardh -- Cymodocea K. D. Koenig, nom. cons. -- Halodule Endl. -- Syringodium Kütz. -- Thalassodendron Hartog
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1070. Taylor, N. 1909. Family 3. Cymodoceaceae. North American Flora 17:31–32; Bragg, L.H. & C. McMillan. 1987. SEM comparison of fruits and seeds of Syringodium (Cymodoceaceae) from Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Philippines. Contr. Mar. Sci. 30:91–103; Haynes, R.R. & L.B. Holm-Nielsen. 1985. A generic treatment of Alismatidae in the Neotropics with special reference to Brazil. Acta Amazon., Supl. 15:153–193; Hartog, C. den. 1970. The sea-grasses of the world. Verh. Kon. Ned. Akad. Wetensch., Afd. Natuurk. 59:1–275; Bragg, L.H. & C. McMillan. 1986. SEM comparison of fruits of a seagrass Halodule (Cymodoceaceae), from Australia and Texas. Amer. J. Bot. 73:815–821.
General references
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, Haynes, R.R. and L.B. Holm-Nielsen. 1985. A generic treatment of Alismatidae in the neotropics with special reference to Brazil. Acta Amazonica, Supl. 15:153–193, 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 illustrations. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Hartog (1970), Bragg & McMillan (1987), Dahlgren et al.
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Syringodium filiforme Kutz.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Syringodium filiforme Kutz.: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Halodule wrightii Asch.: 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’.
