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Synonyms: Croomiaceae Nakai; Roxburghiaceae Wall.
Common name: Stemona Family.
Number of genera 3. Number of species 30 (less 2 spp. in Pentastemona now in its own family).
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; capsule; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded to more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 1–10-seeded; from 1–5 cm long to from 5.1–10 cm long; 1–8 cm long; 2-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 beaked; apex short beaked; dehiscent. Dehiscent and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; chartaceous; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Endocarp present; not separating 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 (funiculus of (Roxburghia) Stemona very long forming 2 fasicles and with whorl of vesicles around the apex below the seed).
Seeds
Aril present, or absent; an arillike structure. Arillike structure falling with seed an arillode, or a caruncle, or an elaisome (Scoring is based on: Stemoma arillode various, but not inflated; literature not clear about the name of this arillike structure. Dahlgren et al.: "elaiosome a caruncle formed from the hilum and sometimes also from the raphe. Elaisome variable, usually fatty"). Seed larger than minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long to 5 to less than 10 mm long; 1.5–8 mm long; mitaform, or elliptic, or oblong, or obovate (narrowly); in transection terete; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; with caudate appendage(s), or without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; tight; shiny; surface unsmooth; surface with depressed features, or merged raised features; surface grooved; surface reticulate, or ribbed (longitudinally & sharply ridged to almost winglike); 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; with wing(s), or without wings; with wing(s) solid; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; thin, or thick; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Raphe conspicuous. Endosperm development nuclear; copious; fleshy, or hard; smooth; with starch (copious in Croomia & small amount in Stemona); with proteins, fats, and hemicellulose (occasionally & cellulose in Dahlgren et al.); without fatty acid containing cyclopropene; without apical lobes; without chlorophyll; without isodiametric faceted surface; without odor.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; partially filling testa (with food reserve); chamber lateral to wing; 0.1–0.7 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; linear; straight; parallel to seed length; embedded in endosperm; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 1 cotyledon, or acotyledonous. Cotyledons one and terminal with lateral plumule; not modified into scutellum; not circinately coiled.
Distribution
New World, Old World. North America, southeastern Asia, Australia.
Notes
Spjut did not cover this family. Croomia has fringed aril and long funiculus. Duyfies (1992): "Fruit inferior, distinctly ribbed, berry-like, containing many seeds embedded in their scarotesta like hyline exotestas, arillode inflated". Stemona fruit superior. Stichoneuron 1/2 inferior, both 2-valved capsule both genera have no sarcotesta, arilloid, not inflated. Dahlgren et al.: Fruit bivalvular, sometimes berry-like capsule with 1 or few longitudinally ribbed seeds, which bear an elaiosome or caruncle, formed from the hilum and sometimes also the raphe. Fruit short beaked or not". Croomia has aril filamentous. Seeds of Stemona dangle on long funiculus and usually with "aril consisting of a tuft of hairs". Other arils short.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Croomia Torr. -- Stemona Lour. -- Stichoneuron Hook. f.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1224 (also see Pentastemonaceae). Duyfies, B.E.E. 1992. Formal description of the family Pentastemonaceae with some additional notes on Pentastemonaceae and Stemonaceae. Blumea 36:551–552; Steenis, C.G.G.J. van. 1982. Pentastemona, a new 5-merous genus of monocotyledons from north Sumatra (Stemonaceae). Blumea 28:151–163.
General references
Boerlage, J. G. 1897–1914. Icones Borgorienses, 4 vols. E.J. Brill, Leiden (plate numbers are in [ ]), Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Dahlgren, R.M.T., H.T. Clifford and P.F. Yeo. 1985. The families of the monocotyledons, 520 pp. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Flora of Australia (various years and volumes). Australian Government Publication, Canberra, 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], Gray, A. 1848. Genera florae Americae boreali-orientalis illustrata, 2 vols. James Munroe and Co., Boston., 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, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and poor seed illustrations; Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed. Fruit illustration(s): Dahlgren et al., Boerlage [245], Flora Australia, Gray, Steenis (1982). Seed illustration(s): Dahlgren et al., Gray.
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Stemona javanica (Kunth) Engl.: fruit with calyx. • Seed. 2 of 3. Stemona javanica (Kunth) Engl.: seeds. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Stemona tuberosa Lour.: 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’.
