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Synonyms: Bolivariaceae Griseb.; Forestieraceae Meisn.; Fraxinaceae Vest; Jasminaceae Adans.; Lilacaceae Vent., nom. illeg.; Syringaceae Horan.
Common name: Olive Family.
Number of genera 23. Number of species 900.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or an incomplete fruit with epicarp and mesocarp absent and endocarp exposed, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple, or schizocarp; drupe, or capsule, or samara; baccarium (Spjut 6 families: Apocynaceae, Oleaceae, Phytolaccaceae, Sapindaceae, Saururaceae, Tropaeolaceae); loculicidal capsule, or pyxidium capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry dehiscent (Ligustrum sempervirens (Franch.) Lingelsh. upon drying & then tardily); without persistent central column; with styles(s); at apex; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded to more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 1–4-seeded; 1–2-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; actively; elastically; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp black, or blue; durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present, or absent; fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present, or absent; not separating from exocarp; fibrous, or hard, or thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; stone unilocular; 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 not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without apparent food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; 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, or with wing(s); 1-winged; with wing encompassing seed, or wing at one end; with wing(s) solid; with solid wing(s) similar to testa; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; coriaceous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo, or surrounding food reserve. Raphe conspicuous, or inconspicuous. Endosperm development cellular; copious; sub hard, or fleshy; smooth; without starch; with oils; 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; completely filling testa (no food reserve), or partially filling testa (with food reserve), or nearly filling testa (trace or scanty food reserve); chamber apical to wing, or central to wings; 0.1–1 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate, or linear; with spatulate cotyledons; unknown, but listed as "or rudimentary"; straight; parallel to seed length; embedded in endosperm; with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle, or gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.2–0.9 times length of embryo; as wide as hypocotyl-radicle, or somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 1–6 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; foliaceous, or not foliaceous; thin to thick; flat, or controtiplicate (Schrebera sp.); smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally cordate; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle small to 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
Lawrence & Green (1993): Dehiscent berries also occur in Myristicaceae, Cactaceae, Areaceae. [These four families have been so scored.] Mabberley: Oleoideae - Fraxineae (fruit samara); Oleeae (fruit drupe or berry or 2-locule capsule; Jasminoideae - Jasmineae (fruit capsule or berry); Fontanesieae (fruit indehiscent compressed with surrounding ring); Forsythieae (fruit tough capsule or indehiscent compressed with surrounding ring); Myxopyreae (fruit fleshy).
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), New Hampshire (NH).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Ligustrum obtusifolium Siebold & Zucc.: USA state noxious weed: CT●, MA●, NH●. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Forestiera neomexicana A. Gray -- Fraxinus americana L. -- Fraxinus anomala Torr. ex S. Watson -- Fraxinus excelsior L. -- Fraxinus latifolia Benth. -- Fraxinus nigra Marshall -- Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marshall -- Syringa vulgaris L. -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Fraxinus americana L.t -- Fraxinus excelsior L.t -- Fraxinus mandshurica Rupr.t -- Jasminum beesianum Forrest & Diels -- Jasminum grandiflorum L. -- Jasminum humile L.w -- Jasminum nudiflorum Lindl. -- Jasminum officinale L. -- Jasminum × stephanense Lemoine -- Jasminum wallichianum Lindl. included in Jasminum humile L.-- Ligustrum ovalifolium Hassk.w -- Ligustrum vulgare L.t -- Olea europaea L.w -- Osmanthus heterophyllus (G. Don) P. S. Green -- Syringa komarowii C. K. Schneid.t -- Syringa reflexa C. K. Schneid. included in Syringa komarowii C. K. Schneid.-- Syringa villosa Vahlt -- Syringa vulgaris L.t -- 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
Abeliophyllum Nakai -- Chionanthus L. -- Comoranthus Knobl. -- Fontanesia Labill. -- Forestiera Poir., nom. cons. -- Forsythia Vahl, nom. cons. -- Fraxinus L. -- Haenianthus Griseb. -- Hesperelaea A. Gray -- Jasminum L. -- Ligustrum L. -- Menodora Bonpl. -- Myxopyrum Blume -- Nestegis Raf. -- Noronhia Stadtm. ex Thouars -- Notelaea Vent. -- Olea L. -- Osmanthus Lour. -- Phillyrea L. -- Picconia A. DC. -- Priogymnanthus P. S. Green -- Schrebera Roxb., nom. cons. -- Syringa L. -- Tessarandra Miers
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 948. Lawrence, T.J. & P.S. Green. 1993. The anatomy of a dehiscent berry. Kew Bull. 48:53–57.
General references
Baillon, H.E. 1866–95. Histoire des plantes, 13 vols. Hachette and Co., Paris, Corner, E.J.H. 1976. The seeds of Dicots, esp. vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, New York, 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, LeMaout, E. and J. Decaisne. 1876. A general system of botany, 1,065 p. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 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, Schopmeyer, C.S. 1974. Seeds of Woody plants in the United States. Agric. Handb. 450:1–883, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182, Wood, C.E., Jr. 1974. A student's atlas of flowering plants: Some dicotyledons of eastern North America, 120 pp. Harper and Row, New York.
Illustrations
Poor fruit and seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or fruit incomplete, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Schopmeyer. Fruit illustration(s): Wood, Jr., Schopmeyer. Seed illustration(s): Schopmeyer, LeMaout & Decasine. Embryo illustration(s): Wood, Jr., Schopmeyer, Martin, LeMaout & Decaisne.
• Fruit. 1 of 13. Fraxinus americana L.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 13. Fraxinus americana L.: seed. • Fruit. 3 of 13. Ligustrum japonicum Thunb.: fruit. • Seed. 4 of 13. Ligustrum japonicum Thunb.: seeds. • Fruit. 5 of 13. Olea europaea L.: fruit. • Fruit. 6 of 13. Olea europaea L.: fruit with exocarp removed. • Seed. 7 of 13. Olea europaea L.: seed. • Embryo. 8 of 13. Chionanthus virginicus L.: embryo. • Embryo. 9 of 13. Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marshall: embryo. • Embryo. 10 of 13. Ligustrum sinense Lour.: embryo. • Embryo. 11 of 13. Menodora scabra A. Gray: embryo. • Embryo. 12 of 13. Olea europaea L.: embryo. • Embryo. 13 of 13. Syringa vulgaris L.: 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’.
