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Common name: Greasewood Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 1 (Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr.).
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) simple; 1; 1-pistillate. Fruit anthocarp; simple; diclesium; without persistent central column; within accessory organ(s); within perianth (assumed); 1-seeded; 1-seeded; less than 1 cm long; 0.4–0.5 cm long; 1-carpellate (assumed); not sulcate; in transection terete; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp brown (all shades) (assumed); dull; durable; coriaceous; when mature glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs) (when immature - minutely stellate pubescent); hairs short; hairs not glandular; without armature; with wing(s); 1-winged; with wing(s) lateral; without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp absent. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long; 1.8–2.2 mm long (diameter); circular (or nearly so); in transection flattened; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves (based on Chenopodiaceae); with perisperm (based on Chenopodiaceae); without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; 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; brown (all shades); not becoming mucilaginous when wetted.
Perisperm opaque. Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; completely filling testa (no food reserve); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; peripheral; linear; annular (or nearly so); with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 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; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
New World. North America.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr. -- Last updated September 2008.
Accepted genera
Sarcobatus Nees
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 264 (Cronquist & Mabberley have in Chenopodiaceae). Correll, D.S. & H.B. Correll. 1972a. Aquatic and wetland plants of southwestern United States, vol 1, pp. 841–842. Stanford University Press, Stanford; Hitchcock, C.L., A. Cronquist, M. Ownbey, & J.W. Thompson. 1964. Vascular plants of the Pacific northwest, part 2, pp. 213 & 215. University of Washington Press, Seattle.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and no seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit. Fruit illustration(s): Correll & Correll (1972), Hitchcock et al. (1971).
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr.: fruit cluster. • Seed. 2 of 3. Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr.: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr.: 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’.
