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Common name: Corkwood Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 1 (Leitneria floridana Chapman).
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit, or an incomplete fruit with epicarp and mesocarp absent and endocarp exposed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) simple; 1; 1-pistillate. Fruit pericarpium; simple; nuculanium, or drupe (other authors & dry but not Spjut); without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded; 1-seeded; Cronquist 2-carpellate, or 1-carpellate (Goldberg); with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection terete (somewhat); apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; thin, or fleshy (scant); composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system; and endocarp sharply differentiated. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; bony, or crustaceous; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; stone unilocular; stone 1-loculate; not smooth; with reticulate; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without grooves; 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; ovate; in transection compressed; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm (Corner: "perisperm as a few celled-layer" & this was not scored); without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; 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; thin; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm development nuclear; thin; fleshy (greenish); smooth; with starch; 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; nearly filling testa (trace or scanty food reserve); 0.9 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate; with spatulate cotyledons, or investing cotyledons; straight; parallel to seed length; embedded in endosperm; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.7 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 2 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle (at least); foliaceous; thick; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
New World. North America (southeastern USA).
Notes
All authors but Spjut label fruit a dry drupe (scant flesh) with conspicuous reticulate stony or crustaceous endocarp. Why does Spjut, who did not discuss this fruit under nuculanium, call it a nuculanium?.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Leitneria Chapm.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 202. Jarvis, C.E. 1989. A review of the order Leitneriales Engler. In: P.R. Crane & S. Blackmore, eds., Evolution, Systematcs, and Fossil History of the Hamamelidadae, vol. 2: 'Higher' Hamamelidae, Systematics Association Special Volume No. 40B, pp. 189–192. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
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, 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, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
No fruit [but endocarp] and acceptable seed illustrations. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Karen, Baillon. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 056: Leitneria floridana Chapm. (A-B).
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Leitneria floridana Chapm.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Leitneria floridana Chapm.: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Leitneria floridana Chapm.: 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’.
