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Synonyms: Apodanthaceae Tiegh. ex Takht.; Cytinaceae Brongn. ex A. Rich.
Common name: Rafflesia Family.
Number of genera 8. 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 anthocarp, or pericarpium; simple; carcerulus; compound; sorosus (Bdallophytum); without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); many-seeded; many to 1,000s; 4–8-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; wall fleshy; indehiscent, or dehiscent (or irregularly dehiscent). Dehiscent and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp dull; durable; not glabrous (with hairs); hairs not glandular; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present. Endocarp absent. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed minute, or larger than minute; less than 1 mm long to 1 to less than 5 mm long; 0.5–1 mm long; ovate; in transection terete; 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, or absent (Cytinus, Raffesia); without embryo surrounded and capped by viscid tissue; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; dull; surface unsmooth; surface with merged raised features; surface reticulate; 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; Cytinus, Raffesia glabrous, or pubescent; with hairs over surface; with short hairs; sparsely hairy; without agglutinated hairs; without glandular pubescence; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades); hard; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Hilum punctate. Endosperm development nuclear, or cellular (Cronquist); copious; 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, or undifferentiated from food reserve; rudimentary; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.1 times the length of food reserve (or less); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; miniature; dwarf; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; acotyledonous. Hypocotyl-radicle undeveloped.
Distribution
Pantropical and pansubtropical. New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Africa, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania (to Japan).
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Apodanthes Poit. -- Bdallophytum Eichler -- Berlinianche (Harms) Vattimo-Gil -- Cytinus L., nom. cons. -- Pilostyles Guill. -- Rafflesia R. Br. -- Rhizanthes Dumort. -- Sapria Griff.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 703.
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, 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 [ ]), Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 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 see Goldberg for sources of illustrations & Hooker [DCLV], LeMaout & Decaisne]. Cronquist has only pollen illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): seed.
• Seed. 1 of 1. Rafflesia manillana Teschem.: seeds.
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’.
