| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Leea Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 34.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; berry; berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; without persistent central column; within accessory organ(s); within receptacle (thin & usually dry-fleshy); accrescent; persistent; more than 1 but less than 10-seeded (assumed); from 1–5 cm long; 2.5–3 cm long; 2(–8)-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection terete; apex not beaked; wall fleshy; indehiscent. Epicarp durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy, or dry; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp absent. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long to 10 to less than 25 mm long; 4–12 mm long; in transection compressed, or triangular; 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; dull; surface unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface reticulate; 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; black, or brown (all shades); not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Raphe conspicuous (& source of chalaza). Endosperm copious; fleshy; ruminate (because of 5 major testa ingrowths); with oils, proteins, and fats (containing druse); 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); 0.2 times the length of food reserve (estimated); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; linear; straight, or C-shaped (slightly); 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 2; moderately developed; 0.2 times length of embryo; as wide as hypocotyl-radicle; 1 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; thin; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed; straight, or curved (slightly); not thickened.
Distribution
Old World. Africa, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ISTA listed seeds.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Leea coccinea Planch. = Leea guineensis G. Don -- Leea guineensis G. Don -- Symbols: aagricultural and vegetable seeds (Table 2A Part 1); ttree and shrub species (Table 2A Part 2); fflower, spice, herb, and medicinal seeds (Table 2A Part 3); wweed seeds. -- Last updated September 2008.
Accepted genera
Leea D. Royen ex L., nom. cons.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 746. Ridsdale, C.E. 1974. A revision of the family Leeaceae. Blumea 22:57–100.
General references
Boerlage, J. G. 1897–1914. Icones Borgorienses, 4 vols. E.J. Brill, Leiden (plate numbers are in [ ]), 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, 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
Poor fruit and acceptable seed illustrations. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Boerlage [258]. Seed illustration(s): Karen, Boerlage [258]. Embryo illustration(s): Karen, Boerlage [258]. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 235: Leea rubra Blume (A-B).
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Leea indica (Burm. f.) Merr.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Leea indica (Burm. f.) Merr.: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Leea rubra Blume: 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’.
