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Common name: Pipewort Family.
Number of genera 10. Number of species 1200.
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; capsule; loculicidal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; without persistent central column; with styles(s); at apex; not within accessory organ(s), or within accessory organ(s); within perianth; more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 2–3-seeded; 2–3-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; wall leathery (assumed); dehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent actively; at apex, or base; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; smooth; 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 minute, or larger than minute; less than 1 mm long, or 1 to less than 5 mm long; 0.3–1.5 mm long; elliptic, or oblong, or ovate, or fusiform; in transection terete (to subterete); 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 markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; shiny; surface unsmooth, or smooth; surface with discreet raised features, or merged raised features; surface papillate, or verrucose, or miniature T-shaped hooks; surface reticulate, or rugose, or ribbed (longitudinally), or striate; 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, or pubescent (rarely); with hairs over surface; with short hairs; without glandular pubescence; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades), or yellow, or red (dish); coriaceous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Raphe inconspicuous (assumed). Endosperm development nuclear; copious; mealy (or floury); opaque; smooth; with starch; with compound starch grains; with oils; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; rudimentary; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; lens; lenticular; transverse to seed length; capping one end of endosperm; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; acotyledonous. Hypocotyl-radicle undeveloped.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan. New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Puerto Rico (PR).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Lachnocaulon spp.: USA state noxious weed: PR●. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Blastocaulon Ruhland -- Eriocaulon L. -- Lachnocaulon Kunth -- Leiothrix Ruhland -- Mesanthemum Körn. -- Paepalanthus Kunth, nom. cons. -- Philodice Mart. -- Rondonanthus Herzog -- Syngonanthus Ruhland -- Tonina Aubl.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1117. Giulietti, A.M., W.R. Monteiro, S. J. Mayo, & J. Stephens. 1987. A perliminary survey of testa sculpture in Eriocaulaceae. Beitr. Biol. Pflanzen. 62. 189–209; Kral, R. 1966b. Eriocaulaceae of continental North America north of Mexico. Sida 2:285–332; Nair, R.V. 1987. Taxonomic significance of seed coat morphology in Eriocaulon Linn. (Eriocaulaceae). Seed Sci. Technol. 15:297–310.
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. and C.A. Ritchie. 1988. Identification of disseminules listed in the Federal Noxious Weed Act. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1719:1–313, 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): Kral (1966), LeMaout & Decaisne. Seed illustration(s): Kral (1966), Hooker [3388 & 3389], Giulietti et al. (1987), LeMaout & Decaisne, Nair (1987), Gunn & Ritchie. Embryo illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Gunn & Ritchie, Martin.
• Fruit. 1 of 4. Eriocaulon benthamii Kunth: fruiting head. • Fruit. 2 of 4. Eriocaulon benthamii Kunth: fruits. • Seed. 3 of 4. Eriocaulon benthamii Kunth: fruit. • Embryo. 4 of 4. Eriocaulon truncatum Ham. ex Mart.: 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’.
