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Common name: Mitrastemon Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 2.
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; simple; berry, or capsule; pyxidium capsule (Mitrastemon matudai Yamam.); capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); many-seeded; many; less than 1 cm long to from 1–5 cm long; 1 cm long; 9–15-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection terete; apex not beaked; dehiscent, or indehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly (but tardily); passively; linearly; by circumscissile slit; at apex (toward apex at least); without replum. Epicarp durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; smooth (apparently); without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; 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 absent. Seed minute; less than 1 mm long; 0.25 mm long; obovate; in transection terete; 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; hard; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm copious; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Embryo undifferentiated from food reserve; well developed.
Distribution
New World, Old World. Middle America (Mitrastemon matudai), Asia Major, southeastern Asia (Japan: Mitrastemon kanehirai).
Notes
Goldberg did not treat this family.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Mitrastemon Makino
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 702. Yamamoto, Y. 1936. Species nova Mitrastemonacearum (Rafflesiacearum) ex Mexico. Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 50(598):539–541; Matuda, E. 1947. On the genus Mitrastemon. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 74:133–141; Yamamoto, Y. 1925. Species nova Rafflesiacearum ex Formosa. Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 39(461):142–145.
General references
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, 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 seed illustrations. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed. Fruit illustration(s): Yamamoto (1936). Seed illustration(s): Karen [drawn from Yamamoto (1936)]. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 216: Mitrastemon (Mitrastemma) matudai Yamamoto & Matuda (A) [redrawn from Yamamoto (1936)].
• Fruit. 1 of 1. Mitrastemon yamamotoi Makino: fruit with scales.
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’.
