| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Synonyms: Anthobolaceae Dumort.; Arjonaceae Tiegh.; Canopodaceae C. Presl; Exocarpaceae J. Agardh; Osyridaceae Raf.
Common name: Sandalwood Family.
Number of genera 38. Number of species 500.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium, or anthocarp; simple; drupe, or berry (rarely & not Spjut); simple; glans; without persistent central column; crowned by sepals; within accessory organ(s), or not within accessory organ(s); within calyx (tubilar disk), or receptacle (saucer- or cup-shaped), or pedicel (becomes swollen and fleshy as fruit develops), or cupule; hard calyx (woody); 1-seeded; 1-seeded; from 1–5 cm long (at least); 1.2–1.5 cm long; (2–)3(–5)-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection terete; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp brown (all shades), or red (ish brown); durable; thin; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; smooth, or not smooth; wrinkled; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy, or hard; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system; and endocarp sharply differentiated. Endocarp present, or absent; not separating from exocarp, or separating spontaneously from exocarp; bony, or crustaceous, or thin, or fleshy (pulpy when young, when drying becoming hard and separating from mesocarp), or hard; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; 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 minute, or larger than minute; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa absent; crushed, or not differentiated; without embryo surrounded and capped by viscid tissue. Endosperm development cellular, or helobial (Mida); copious; fleshy; smooth; with starch (Thesium); 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; well developed, or rudimentary; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); 0.1–0.95 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; linear; linear (to oblong); straight; parallel 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; moderately developed, or well developed; 0.3–0.7 times length of embryo; as wide as hypocotyl-radicle, or not as wide as hypocotyl-radicle; less than to 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 moderately developed, or well developed; straight; 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
Mabberley: "I: Santaleae - receptacle saucer- or cupped- shaped; II: Thesieae - receptacle tubular disk; III: Anthoboleae - pedicel becoming swollen and fleshy as fruit develops".
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Viscum album L. -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Santalum album L. -- 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
Acanthosyris (Eichler) Griseb. -- Amphorogyne Stauffer & Hürl. -- Anthobolus R. Br. -- Arjona Cav. -- Austroamericium Hendrych -- Buckleya Torr., nom. cons. -- Cervantesia Ruiz & Pav. -- Choretrum R. Br. -- Cladomyza Danser -- Colpoon P. J. Bergius -- Comandra Nutt. -- Daenikera Hürl. & Stauffer -- Dendromyza Danser -- Dendrotrophe Miq. -- Dufrenoya Chatin -- Elaphanthera N. Hallé -- Exocarpos Labill., nom. cons. -- Geocaulon Fernald -- Iodina Hook. & Arn. ex Meisn. -- Kunkeliella Stearn -- Leptomeria R. Br. -- Mida A. Cunn. ex Endl. -- Myoschilos Ruiz & Pav. -- Nanodea Banks ex C. F. Gaertn. -- Nestronia Raf. -- Okoubaka Pellegr. & Normand -- Omphacomeria (Endl.) A. DC. -- Osyridicarpos A. DC. -- Osyris L. -- Phacellaria Benth. -- Pyrularia Michx. -- Quinchamalium Molina, nom. cons. -- Rhoiacarpos A. DC. -- Santalum L. -- Scleropyrum Arn., nom. cons. -- Spirogardnera Stauffer -- Thesidium Sond. -- Thesium L.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 685.
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, 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. and C.A. Ritchie. 1988. Identification of disseminules listed in the Federal Noxious Weed Act. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1719:1–313, 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, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Poor fruit and seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Cronquist, Engler & Prantl, Gunn & Ritchie. Embryo illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Engler & Prantl, NoxWeed, Martin.
• Fruit. 1 of 8. Anthobolus leptomerioides F. Muell.: fruits with peduncle. • Seed. 2 of 8. Anthobolus leptomerioides F. Muell.: seed. • Seed. 3 of 8. Iodina rhombifolia (Hook. & Arn.) Hook. & Arn. ex Reissek: seed. • Fruit. 4 of 8. Santalum acuminatum (R. Br.) DC.: fruit. • Seed. 5 of 8. Santalum acuminatum (R. Br.) DC.: seed. • Fruit. 6 of 8. Thesium pyrenaicum Pourret.: fruits. • Seed. 7 of 8. Thesium pyrenaicum Pourret.: seed. • Embryo. 8 of 8. Thesium humile Vahl: 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’.
