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Common name: Degeneria Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 1 (Degeneria vitiensis I. W. Bailey & A. C. Sm.).
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) simple; 1; 1-pistillate. Fruit pericarpium; simple; camara; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); many-seeded; many; from 5.1–10 cm long to more than 10 cm long; 6–10.5 cm long; 1-carpellate; in transection terete; apex not beaked; wall fleshy (more or less), or leathery; dehiscent (or at least tardily). Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent passively; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp brown (all shades), or pink, or purple; shiny; durable; coriaceous; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; smooth; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; fleshy (drying on maturity); not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; stone unilocular; stone 1-loculate; not smooth (irregularly ridged); with irregularly ridges (& with irregular waxy appendages); without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without mechanism for seedling escape; without grooves; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus long and short (one row of seeds on long funiculi & other row of seeds sessile); short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); persisting in fruit after seed shed (& some long & some short).
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute; 5 to less than 10 mm long, or 10 to less than 25 mm long; 8–16 mm long; in transection flattened; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta present; fleshy. Testa present (dried sacrotesta); with fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; surface smooth, or unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface reticulate, or sculptured, 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; orange and red (waxy); not becoming mucilaginous when wetted. Endosperm development cellular; copious; opaque; ruminate; with oils; 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); 0.02 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; basal; straight; oblique to seed length; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 3 to 4 (really 3(-4)); tiny; 0.4 times length of embryo; not as wide as hypocotyl-radicle; 0.55 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; partially concealing hypocotyl-radicle; not foliaceous; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle small; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Old World. Oceania (Fiji).
Notes
Cronquist:. "Fruit…with hard exocarp" [Cronquist means endocarp], "possibly dehiscent at maturity", including photo 1.5. Seeds in two rows in fruits: One row with short funicles and the other with longer funicles.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Degeneria I. W. Bailey & A. C. Sm.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 41. Bailey, I.W. & A.C. Smith. 1942. Degeneriaceae, a new family of flowering plants from Fiji. J. Arnold Arbor. 23:356–365; Miller, J.M. 1988. A new species of Degeneria (Degeneriaceae) from the Fiji Archipelago. J. Arnold Arb. 69:275–280.
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, 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 seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Cronquist, Bailey & Smith (1942). Seed illustration(s): Bailey & Smith (1942), Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 002: Degeneria vitiensis I.W. Bailey & A.C. Sm. (A-C).
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Degeneria vitiensis I. W. Bailey & A. C. Sm.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Degeneria vitiensis I. W. Bailey & A. C. Sm.: seeds. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Degeneria vitiensis I. W. Bailey & A. C. Sm.: 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’.
