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Common name: Irvingia Family.
Number of genera 3. Number of species 8.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) 1; 1-pistillate. Fruit pericarpium; simple; Irvingia & Klainedoxa drupe, or samara (Desbordesia); without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded, or more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 1–5-seeded; from 1–5 cm long, or from 5.1–10 cm long; 2–6 cm long; 2–5-carpellate (recorded as 1, 5 or 4, or 2); with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection terete, or compressed; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp gray, or green (or a combination & glaucous); durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; smooth (at least); without wing(s), or with wing(s); 1-winged; with wing(s) encompassing; without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present, or absent; thin and fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; thin, or woody and fibrous (on outside); 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 larger than minute; 25 to less than 50 mm long; up to 35 mm long; in transection flattened, or compressed; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without food reserves, or without apparent 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; surface with merged raised features; surface 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; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo (or nearly so). Endosperm thin, or copious; 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; completely filling testa (no food reserve) (or nearly so); 1 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; foliate; straight, or C-shaped; parallel to seed length (assumed); with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle (assumed); without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.3 times length of embryo; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Old World. Africa (tropical), southeastern Asia.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Desbordesia Pierre ex Tiegh. -- Irvingia Hook. f. -- Klainedoxa Pierre ex Engl.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 811 (Cronquist & Mabberley have in Simaroubiaceae). Berhaut, J. 1975. Dicotyledones. Ficoidées à Légumineuses. Flora Illustrée du Sénégal, vol. 4. Government du Sénégal, Dakar. Gentry, A.H. 1984. Klainedoxa (Irvingiaceae) at Makokou, Gabon: Three sympatric species in a putatively monotypic genus. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 71:166–168.
General references
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], Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and poor seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed. Fruit illustration(s): Berhaut (1975). Seed illustration(s): Xerox of (MO) sheet.
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Irvingia gabonensis (Aubry-Lecomte ex O'Rorke) Baill.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Irvingia gabonensis (Aubry-Lecomte ex O'Rorke) Baill.: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Desbordesia glaucescens (Engl.) Van Tiegh.: embryos.
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’.
