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Common name: Hydnora Family.
Number of genera 2. Number of species 17.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; amphisarcum, or capsule (not Spjut); pyxidium capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; without persistent central column; many-seeded; 1000-seeded (+); from 5.1–10 cm long, or more than 10 cm long; 10–15 cm long (width); 3(–4)-carpellate; with carpels remaining united at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; indehiscent, or dehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly, or irregularly; passively; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp dull; durable; hard; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; not smooth; scaly; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present, or absent; not separating from exocarp; thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long; 1–1.8 mm long; irregular, or oblong, or circular; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm, or perisperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; loose; surface smooth, or unsmooth; surface with depressed features; surface pitted; 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; brown (all shades); hard; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Hilum punctate. Endosperm development cellular; moderate; cartilaginous; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; with polysaccharide (arabinous) & acetic acid; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Perisperm scanty; opaque. Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.3 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; miniature; micro; straight; parallel to seed length; embedded in endosperm; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; acotyledonous.
Distribution
Old World, New World. Middle America and South America (Prosopanche: Paraguay to Patagonia and now Central America), Africa (Hydnora: Ethiopia to the Cape and Madagascar).
Notes
Seeds immersed in gelatinous pulp.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Hydnora Thunb. -- Prosopanche de Bary
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 700. Musselman, L.J. & J.H. Vissar. 1989. Taxonomy and natural history of Hydnora (Hydnoraceae). Aliso 12:317–326; Cocucci, A.E. 1976. Estudios en el género Prosopanche (Hydnoraceae). III. Embriologia. Kurtziana 9:19–39.
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, Engler, A. and K. Prantl. 1924 and onward. Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilimien. W. Engelman, Leipzig, 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, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and poor seed illustrations. Cronquist has only SEMs of pollen. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Musselman & Vissar (1989).
• Seed. 1 of 3. Hydnora africana Thunb.: seed cluster. • Seed. 2 of 3. Hydnora africana Thunb.: seeds. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Prosopanche americana (R. Br.) Baill.: 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’.
