| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Prayer-plant Family.
Number of genera 31. Number of species 550.
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
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; berry, or capsule (of authors, but not Spjut); loculicidal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded to more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 1–3-seeded; 3-carpellate (or 2 of 3 often empty or obsolete); with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; dehiscent, or indehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly; passively (assumed); at apex; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; smooth, or not smooth; Thymocarpus muricate, or roughened (Trachyphrynium), or papillose (some Calathea spp.); without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; dry, or fleshy, or hard; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. 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 from capsules present, or absent (from berry - aril lacking or transformed into pulp in indehiscent fruit); a true aril; white; well developed; adnate to hilum; fleshy; of funicular origin, or micropylar origin; basal; aids in seed explusion from fruit; fleshy. Seed larger than minute; conical- elliptic; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with perisperm, or endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; surface unsmooth, or smooth; surface with merged raised features; surface reticulate, or rugose; 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; with collar; with operculum; colored; monochrome; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm development nuclear.
Perisperm copious; mealy; with starch; with compound starch grains; opaque. Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 1.4–1.6 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; linear; nearly J-shaped, or annular, or straight (seldom); 90% annular; parallel to seed length; surrounding perisperm; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 1 cotyledon. Cotyledons one and not modified into scutellum; not circinately coiled. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan. New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Notes
Embryo 7.3–25 times longer than wide.
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Puerto Rico (PR).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Thalia geniculata L.: USA state noxious weed: PRª. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
ISTA listed seeds.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Maranta arundinacea L. -- Stromanthe sanguinea (Hook.) Sond. -- 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
Afrocalathea K. Schum. -- Ataenidia Gagnep. -- Calathea G. Mey. -- Cominsia Hemsl. -- Ctenanthe Eichler -- Donax Lour. -- Halopegia K. Schum. -- Haumania J. Léonard -- Hylaeanthe A. M. E. Jonker & Jonker -- Hypselodelphys (K. Schum.) Milne-Redh. -- Ischnosiphon Körn. -- Koernickanthe L. Andersson -- Maranta L. -- Marantochloa Brongn. ex Gris -- Megaphrynium Milne-Redh. -- Monophrynium K. Schum. -- Monophyllanthe K. Schum. -- Monotagma K. Schum. -- Myrosma L. f. -- Phacelophrynium K. Schum. -- Phrynium Willd., nom. cons. -- Pleiostachya K. Schum. -- Sanblasia L. Andersson -- Saranthe (Regel & Körn.) Eichler -- Sarcophrynium K. Schum. -- Schumannianthus Gagnep. -- Stachyphrynium K. Schum. -- Stromanthe Sond. -- Thalia L. -- Thaumatococcus Benth. -- Trachyphrynium Benth.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1185. Grootjen, C.J. 1983. Development of ovule and seed in Marantaceae. Acta Bot. Neerl. 32:69–86.
General references
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, 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, Martin, A.C. 1946. The comparative internal morphology of seeds. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 36:513–660, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Poor fruit and seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Engler & Prantl. Embryo illustration(s): Engler & Prantl.
• Fruit. 1 of 8. Ctenanthe amphiandina L. Andersson: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 8. Ctenanthe amphiandina L. Andersson: seeds. • Fruit. 3 of 8. Ischnosiphon arouma (Aubl.) Koernicke: fruit. • Seed. 4 of 8. Ischnosiphon arouma (Aubl.) Koernicke: fruit. • Seed. 5 of 8. Megaphrynium velutinum (Baker) J. Koechlin: seed. • Fruit. 6 of 8. Phrynium philippinense Ridl.: fruit with calyx. • Seed. 7 of 8. Phrynium philippinense Ridl.: seeds. • Embryo. 8 of 8. Calathea micans (Mathieu) Korn.: 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’.
