| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Peridicus Family.
Number of genera 2. Number of species 2 (Whittonia guianensis Sandwith & Peridiscus sp.).
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit anthocarp; simple; pseudodrupe (Peridicus, but does Whittonia fruit score here?); without persistent central column; Peridicus within accessory organ(s), or not within accessory organ(s) (Whittonia); within receptacle (disk of Cronquist & Goldberg), or cupule; 1-seeded; 1-seeded; 3–4-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; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp durable; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; hard; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; without operculum; without secretory cavities; 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; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; 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; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm copious; hard; smooth; 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; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.3 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; lateral; linear (or nearly so); straight; lying along one side of endosperm; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.5 times length of embryo; as wide as hypocotyl-radicle (or nearly so); 1.2 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; not foliaceous; thin; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
New World. South America (tropical).
Notes
From text with Hooker [2441]: Dr. Warburg, in Engler & Prantl, (Flacourtiaceae 54) described it as one-seeded, the seed exabuminous and the embryo curved…" and this is where Airy Shaw got these characters which here are rejected. Hooker made it clear that the "disk surrounds mature fruit". Cronquist: "ovary half sunken into disk".
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Peridiscus Benth. -- Whittonia Sandwith
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 391. Sandwith, N.Y. 1962. Contributions to the flora of tropical America: LXIX. A new genus of Peridiscaceae. Kew Bull. 15:467–471; Hooker, W.J. 1896. Peridiscus lucidus Benth. Icon. pl. 23: pl. 2441.
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, Hooker, J.D. 1873 and forward. Icones Plantarum. William & Norgate, London. (plate number cited in text within [ ]), Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
No fruit and seed illustrations but Xeroxes of herbarium sheets. Cronquist has no illustration.
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Peridiscus lucidus Benth.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Peridiscus lucidus Benth.: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Peridiscus lucidus Benth.: 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’.
