| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Linnaea Family.
Number of genera 5. Number of species 51.
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 (assumed); simple; capsule, or berry, or drupe, or achene (last 2 not Spjut); loculicidal capsule (assumed); capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; without persistent central column; within accessory organ(s), or not within accessory organ(s); within bracteoles, or calyx; 1-seeded, or more than 1 but less than 10-seeded (Dipelta); 1(–2)-seeded (Dipelta); less than 1 cm long; 0.15–1.5 cm long (to what?); 3-carpellate, or 4-carpellate (Dipelta); with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; wall chartaceous (or harder); indehiscent, or dehiscent. Dehiscent and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp shiny, or dull; durable; not glabrous (with hairs), or glabrous (without hairs) (& glandular or not); hairs long; hairs dense, or scattered; hairs not glandular; without armature, or with armature; with bristles (Kolkwitzia); without armature glochidiate; smooth, or not smooth; ribbed (5 longitudinal), or glandular (when pubescent); without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present. Endocarp present, or absent; 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 larger than minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long (at least); 2–8 mm long; oblong; in transection compressed; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; with winglike beak (& glandular); without caudate appendage(s); without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; surface smooth (at least for Linnaea); 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; green, or brown (all shades); not becoming mucilaginous when wetted.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; linear; linear; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; equal in size; not punctate dotted.
Distribution
Circumboreal (Linnaea). New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, Asia Major, Asia Minor.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Abelia R. Br. -- Dipelta Maxim. -- Kolkwitzia Graebn. -- Linnaea L. -- Zabelia (Rehder) Makino
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1006 (Cronquist & Mabberley have in Caprifoliaceae). Ohba, H. 1993. Caprifoliaceae. In: K. Iwatsuki et al., eds., Flora of Japan, vol. 3a, pp. 420–448. Kodansha, Tokyo; Backlund, A. & N. Pyck. 1998. Diervillaceae and Linnaeaceae, two new families of caprifolioids. Taxon 47:657–661.
General references
In more recent references, see specific literature for this family.
Illustrations
No fruit and seed illustrations. Embryo illustration(s): 12 August 2008. The seed coat of Kolkwitzia amabilis Graebn. adheres so tightly to the 'endosperm' or 'cotyledons' that I could not dissect out the embryo. Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr.
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Kolkwitzia amabilis Graebn.: fruits with calyx. • Seed. 2 of 3. Kolkwitzia amabilis Graebn.: seeds. • Fruit. 3 of 3. Linnaea borealis L.: fruit with calyx.
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’.
