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Common name: Cyrilla Family.
Number of genera 3. Number of species 14.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium, or anthocarp; simple; drupe; simple; diclesium (Purdiaea); without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s), or within accessory organ(s); within calyx (or perianth according to Spjut); accrescent; persistent; 1-seeded to more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 1–5-seeded; less than 1 cm long; 0.2 cm long; 1–5-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; without sterile carpels; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp green, or red, or pink; durable; not glabrous (with hairs), or glabrous (without hairs); hairs dense (especially near apex); hairs not glandular; without armature; without wing(s), or with wing(s); 2–4-winged; with wing(s) lateral; without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; Cyrilla thin, or hard (Cliftonia); 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 absent. Seed straight; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa absent; not differentiated; without embryo surrounded and capped by viscid tissue. Endosperm development cellular; copious; fleshy, or fleshy-firm; opaque (assumed); 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); 0.6–0.8 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate; with spatulate cotyledons; straight; parallel to seed length; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; 0.25–0.3 times length of embryo (-0.7 in Purdiaea); somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 1.5 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; not foliaceous; thin; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
New World. North America (southeastern), Middle America, South America.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Cliftonia Banks ex C. F. Gaertn. -- Cyrilla Garden ex L. -- Purdiaea Planch.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 467. Thomas, J.L. 1960. A monographic study of the Cyrillaceae. Contr. Gray Herb. 186:1–114.
General references
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, 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, Martin, A.C. 1946. The comparative internal morphology of seeds. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 36:513–660, 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. Seed illustration(s): Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 139: Cliftonia monophylla (Lam.) Britton ex Sarg.(E-F), Cyrilla racemosa [not in INPI] (A-B), Purdiaea cubensis Urb. (C-D).
• Fruit. 1 of 5. Cliftonia monophylla (Lam.) Britton ex Sarg.: fruits. • Fruit. 2 of 5. Cyrilla racemiflora L.: fruit. • Seed. 3 of 5. Cyrilla racemiflora L.: seed. • Embryo. 4 of 5. Cliftonia monophylla (Lam.) Britton ex Sarg.: embryo. • Embryo. 5 of 5. Cyrilla racemiflora L.: 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’.
