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Common name: Picramnia Family.
Number of genera 2. Number of species 50.
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 (not Spjut & samaroidlike but not a samara); capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; without persistent central column; crowned by sepals (at least for berry); not within accessory organ(s), or within accessory organ(s); within calyx (very short & at least for berry); 1-seeded to more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 1–3-seeded (per cell); from 1–5 cm long; 0.8–1.8 cm long; with carpels not radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; indehiscent, or dehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly; without replum. Epicarp scarlet red, or white, or black, or green, or yellow, or brown (all shades) (ish red); durable; glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs); hairs short (densely pubescent or shortly ciliate); hairs dense (& margins may be ciliate); hairs not glandular; without armature; smooth; with wing(s), or without wing(s); 2–3-winged; without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present. Endocarp present, or absent; not separating from exocarp; thin; 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 larger than minute; narrowly elliptic; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity without food reserves; 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; membranous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 2 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 1 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; equal in size; not punctate dotted.
Distribution
New World. North America, Middle America, South America.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Alvaradoa Liebm. -- Picramnia Sw., nom. cons.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 809 (Cronquist & Mabberley have in Simaroubiaceae). Fernando, E.S. & C.J. Quinn. 1995. Picramniaceae, a new family, and a recircumscription of Simaroubaceae. Taxon 44:177–181; Liogier, A.H. 1985. La flora de la espanola. III. Universidad Central del Este, San Pedro de Macorís; Thomas, W.W. 1997. A new species of Picramnia (Picramniaceae) from the Atlantic coastal forest of southern Bahia, Brazil. Brittonia 49:380–383; Cronquist, A. 1944. Studies in the Simaroubaceae - IV. Resume of the American genera. Brittonia 5:129–147; Adams, C.D. 1972. Flowering plants of Jamaica. University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
General references
Engler, A. and K. Prantl. 1924 and onward. Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilimien. W. Engelman, Leipzig.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and poor seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): "cone", or seed. Fruit illustration(s): Engler & Prantl, Thomas (1997), Liogier (1985). Seed illustration(s): Engler & Prantl.
• Fruit. 1 of 5. Alvaradoa amorphoides Liebm.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 5. Alvaradoa amorphoides Liebm.: seed. • Fruit. 3 of 5. Picramnia pentandra Sw.: fruit. • Seed. 4 of 5. Picramnia pentandra Sw.: seed. • Embryo. 5 of 5. Picramnia nitida Engl.: 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’.
