| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Synonyms: Hectorellaceae Philipson & Skipw.; Lewisiaceae Hook. f. & Arn., nom. inval.; Montiaceae Raf.
Common name: Purslane Family.
Number of genera 23. Number of species 400.
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; capsule; pyxidium capsule, or loculicidal capsule, or poricidal capsule (& pores have minute teeth corresponding to the valves at the orifice for Calandrina, not Spjut); capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; without persistent central column; within accessory organ(s); within hypanthium (1/2 imbedded in Portulaca); connate; persistent; with hypanthium capsules; with hypanthium cupular; with hypanthium fleshy; to many; 2–3(–9)-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 (Portulacarieae & fruit not scored by Spjut). Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent regularly; passively, or actively; with valves coiling; at apex; and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp brown (all shades); durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature, or with armature; with lignified trichomes; without armature glochidiate; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp, or separating spontaneously 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, or present (Calandrinia, Calyptrotheca, Claytonia, Talinum); a true aril; white; well developed, or vestigal; adnate to hilum; fleshy, or dry; of funicular origin; marginal; fleshy, or papery; cushionlike, or fimbriate-laciniate; with plicate hairlike fringe. Seed larger than minute; reniform, or circular, or pyriform, or C-shaped; in transection compressed, or flattened; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with perisperm, or endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; dull, or shiny; surface smooth, or unsmooth; surface with discreet raised features, or merged raised features; surface papillate, or tuberculate; surface colliculate, or rugose; with crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; with notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approaching each other; without glands; without bristles; glabrous; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades), or black; crustaceous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo, or surrounding food reserve (rarely). Endosperm development nuclear.
Perisperm copious; hard, or floury, or soft; with starch; with starch composed of solitary grains; opaque, or transparent (semi-); smooth. Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 2 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; peripheral, or axile and centric; linear; arcuate, or C-shaped, or J-shaped, or annular; 90% annular, or 100% annular, or 125% annular; parallel to seed length; surrounding perisperm, or embedded in perisperm; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2, or 4 (Anacampseros lanceolata); moderately developed; 0.3–0.5 times length of embryo; 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 separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; curved; 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
Need to score indehiscent schizocarp of tribe Portulacarieae: Ceraria, Portulacaria, Silvaea, and some spp. of Monocosmia & Lenzia.
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Arizona (AZ).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Portulaca oleracea L.: USA state noxious weed: AZ●. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Claytonia perfoliata Donn ex Willd. -- Montia linearis (Douglas ex Hook.) Greene -- Montia perfoliata (Donn ex Willd.) Howell = Claytonia perfoliata Donn ex Willd. -- Phemeranthus parviflorus (Nutt.) Kiger -- Portulaca grandiflora Hook. -- Portulaca oleracea L. -- Talinum parviflorum Nutt. = Phemeranthus parviflorus (Nutt.) Kiger -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Claytonia perfoliata Donn ex Willd.a -- Montia perfoliata (Donn ex Willd.) Howell = Claytonia perfoliata Donn ex Willd. -- Portulaca grandiflora Hook.f -- Portulaca oleracea L.a -- Talinum paniculatum (Jacq.) Gaertn.w -- 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
Amphipetalum Bacigalupo -- Anacampseros L., nom. cons. -- Avonia (E. Mey. ex Fenzl) G. D. Rowley -- Calandrinia Kunth, nom. cons. -- Calyptridium Nutt. -- Calyptrotheca Gilg -- Ceraria H. Pearson & Stephens -- Cistanthe Spach -- Claytonia L. -- Grahamia Gillies ex Hook. & Arn. -- Lenzia Phil. -- Lewisia Pursh -- Lyallia Hook. f. -- Montia L. -- Montiopsis Kuntze -- Parakeelya Hershk. -- Portulaca L. -- Portulacaria Jacq. -- Schreiteria Carolin -- Talinella Baill. -- Talinum Adans., nom. cons.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 267. Carolin, R. 1974. A review of the family Portulacaceae. Taxon 23:725–728; Nyananyo, B.L. 1988. The systematic significance of seed morphology and anatomy in the Portulacaceae (Centrospermae). Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 23:275–79 & plates 8–13; McNeill, J. 1974. Synopsis of a revised classification of the Portulacaceae. Taxon 23:725–728; Prabhakar, M., P. Leelavathi, & B.K.V. Kumar. 1990. SEM studies on seeds of Indian Portulacaceae and their taxonomic significance. Asian J. Pl. Sci. 2:9–14.
General references
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, 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 seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Wood, Jr. Seed illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Wood, Jr., Cronquist, NoxWeed. Embryo illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Wood, Jr., Cronquist, NoxWeed, Martin.
• Seed. 1 of 3. Calandrinia grandiflora Lindl.: seeds. • Seed. 2 of 3. Portulaca oleracea L.: seeds. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Portulaca quadrifida 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’.
