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Common name: Pittosporum Family.
Number of genera 10. Number of species 240.
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, or schizocarp; capsule, or berry (not Spjut); coccarium; loculicidal capsule and septicidal capsule (lower 1/2 or so septicidally & upper 1/2 or so loculicidally - Spjut scored only loculicidal); capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded to many-seeded; 1-seeded (to many); from 1–5 cm long; 1–3.5 cm long; 2(–5)-carpellate (really 2(-3–5)); 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; wall leathery, or woody; indehiscent, or dehiscent (rarely). Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs); hairs short; hairs dense; hairs white; hairs not glandular; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. 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 embedded in pulpy endocarp tissue, or viscid endocarp tissue; larger than minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long to 5 to less than 10 mm long; 1.75–7 mm long; reniform, or irregular, or circular; in transection compressed, or flattened (rarely); 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; loose; dull, or shiny; surface unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface rugose, or wrinkled; without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; without notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approach each other, or with notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approaching each other; without glands; without bristles; glabrous; without wings, or with wing(s) (Hymenosporum); without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades), or red (dish or for both with black, orange, red, yellow, or white glutinous resinous globules); not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Raphe conspicuous; texture as testa (assumed); shorter than seed; included in dehisced fruit. Endosperm development nuclear; copious; fleshy-firm, or fleshy; smooth; with oils and proteins; without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve, or undifferentiated from food reserve (Goldberg); well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.1 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; linear; straight; oblique to seed length; embedded in endosperm; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons, or acotyledonous. Cotyledons 2 to 5; tiny; as wide as hypocotyl-radicle; 1 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; not foliaceous; thin; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins connate (except apex); equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle small; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Old World. Africa, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Hawaii (HI).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Pittosporum undulatum Vent.: USA state noxious weed: HI●°. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Pittosporum undulatum Vent. -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Pittosporum tobira (Thunb.) W. T. Aiton -- 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
Auranticarpa Cayzer et al. -- Bentleya E. M. Benn. -- Billardiera Sm. -- Bursaria Cav. -- Cheiranthera Brongn. -- Hymenosporum R. Br. ex F. Muell. -- Pittosporum Banks ex Gaertn., nom. cons. -- Pronaya Hügel -- Rhytidosporum F. Muell. -- Sollya Lindl.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 551. Bennett, E.M. 1986. Bentleya, a new genus of Pittosporaceae from southern Western Australia. Nuytsia 5:401–406.
General references
Baillon, H.E. 1866–95. Histoire des plantes, 13 vols. Hachette and Co., Paris, Boerlage, J. G. 1897–1914. Icones Borgorienses, 4 vols. E.J. Brill, Leiden (plate numbers are in [ ]), 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, Engler, A. and K. Prantl. 1924 and onward. Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilimien. W. Engelman, Leipzig, 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, 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
Acceptable fruit and poor seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Bennett (1986), Boerlage [77], Cronquist, Engler & Prantl. Seed illustration(s): Boerlage [77], Engler & Prantl. Embryo illustration(s): Martin, Boerlage [77], Baillon, Engler & Prantl.
• Seed. 1 of 4. Hymenosporum flavum (Hook.) F. Muell.: seed. • Fruit. 2 of 4. Pittosporum confertiflorum A. Gray: dehisced fruit with seeds. • Seed. 3 of 4. Pittosporum confertiflorum A. Gray: seeds. • Embryo. 4 of 4. Pittosporum tobira (Thunb.) W. T. Aiton: 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’.
