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Synonyms: Meliosmaceae Meisn.; Millingtoniaceae Wight & Arn., nom. illeg.; Wellingtoniaceae Meisn.
Common name: Sabia Family.
Number of genera 3. Number of species 48.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound, or simple; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple, or schizocarp; drupe, or nuculanium; druparium; without persistent central column; with styles(s); sub at base or nearly basal; not within accessory organ(s); more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 2(–3)-seeded; less than 1 cm long; 0.8 cm long; 2(–3)-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; with carpels separating at style; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex beaked; apex long beaked, or moderately beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp blue (bright); durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; fresh smooth, or not smooth (upon drying); wrinkled; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; bony, or crustaceous; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; stone unilocular; not smooth; with pits, or sculptures, or rugose; 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 in transection sub terete, or compressed; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without food reserves, or without apparent food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; 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, or coriaceous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo, or surrounding food reserve. Endosperm development helobial; scant.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; completely filling testa (no food reserve), or nearly filling testa (trace or scanty food reserve); 3 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; foliate; flatly coiled (circinate); with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; with cotyledons containing oils; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.2–0.5 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 3.6–5 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; partially concealing hypocotyl-radicle; thick, or thin; twice-folded, or circinate; smooth, or rugose; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed; curved (against cotyledons); not thickened.
Distribution
New World, Old World. Middle America, South America, Asia Major, southeastern Asia.
Notes
Airy Shaw: "Fruit of 2 flattened dorsally gibbous drupaceous carpels".
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Meliosma Blume -- Ophiocaryon Endl. -- Sabia Colebr.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 139.
General references
Airy Shaw, H.K. 1973. A dictionary of the flowering plants and ferns, 1,131 pp. University Press, Cambridge, 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 [ ]), 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
Poor fruit and seed illustrations. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed. Fruit illustration(s): Hooker [1594]. Seed illustration(s): Hooker [1594], Engler & Prantl. Embryo illustration(s): Hooker [1594], Engler & Prantl.
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Sabia pauciflora Blume: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Sabia pauciflora Blume: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Ophiocaryon heterophyllum (Benth.) Urb.: 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’.
