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Synonyms: Halesiaceae D. Don
Common name: Storax Family.
Number of genera 11. Number of species 165.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; capsule (not Spjut), or drupe (Parastyrax); loculicidal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; without persistent central column; within accessory organ(s); within calyx; 1-seeded to many-seeded (rarely); 1-seeded (to many in Huodendron, Alniphyllum); from 1–5 cm long; 1 cm long (at least); (2–)5-carpellate ((2-)3–5); with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels radiating at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked, or beaked; apex long beaked to short beaked; indehiscent, or dehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp brown (all shades), or gray; durable; glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs); hairs short, or long; hairs scattered (various pubescences including stellate); hairs yellow to brown; hairs not glandular; without armature; not smooth; punctate; without wing(s), or with wing(s); 2–4-winged; with wing(s) lateral; without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp absent, or present. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; woody, or thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without mechanism for seedling escape; without longitudinal ridges. 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 to 50+ mm long; 5–50 mm long; circular, or linear, or oblong, or ovate; 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; without markedly different marginal tissue, or with markedly different marginal tissue; marginal tissue winglike; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; loose; dull; surface unsmooth, or smooth; surface with depressed features, or discreet raised features, or merged raised features; surface grooved; surface papillate; surface wrinkled; without glands; without bristles; glabrous, or pubescent (stellate); without glandular pubescence; without wings, or with wing(s); without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades), or orange, or red (letter two in combination with brown); crustaceous, or thin; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Hilum larger than punctate. Endosperm development cellular; copious; hard, or fleshy; smooth; with oils; 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 central to wings; 0.8 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate, or conical; with investing cotyledons, or spatulate cotyledons; straight, or C-shaped; parallel to seed length; embedded in endosperm; with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle, or gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; (0.2–)0.8 times length of embryo ((0.2-)0.5–0.8); as wide as hypocotyl-radicle, or somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 1–2.5 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; foliaceous, or not foliaceous; thin; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle well developed, or moderately developed; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major.
Notes
Read Spongberg (1976).
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ISTA listed seeds.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Styrax benzoin Dryand. -- 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
Alniphyllum Matsum. -- Bruinsmia Boerl. & Koord. -- Halesia J. Ellis ex L., nom. cons. -- Huodendron Rehder -- Melliodendron Hand.-Mazz. -- Pamphilia Mart. ex A. DC. -- Parastyrax W. W. Sm. -- Pterostyrax Siebold & Zucc. -- Rehderodendron Hu -- Sinojackia Hu -- Styrax L.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 501. Spongberg, S.A. 1976. Styracaceae hardy in temperate North America. J. Arnold Arbor. 59(1):54–73.
General references
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., 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, Martin, A.C. 1946. The comparative internal morphology of seeds. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 36:513–660, Schopmeyer, C.S. 1974. Seeds of Woody plants in the United States. Agric. Handb. 450:1–883, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Acceptable fruit and seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Spongberg (1976), Schopmeyer, Cronquist, Engler & Prantl. Seed illustration(s): Spongberg (1976), Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Schopmeyer, Engler & Prantl, Martin, Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 150: Alniphyllum fortunei Makino (A-C), Briunsmia styracoides Boerlage & Kooders (D-F), Halesia carolina L. , Huodendron biaristatus (W.W. Smith) Rehder [not finalized], Melliodendron xylocarpus Hand.-Mazz. [not finalized], Pamphilia aurea Mart. (M-O), Rehderodendron macrocarpum [not finalized], Sinojackia xylocarpa Hu (P-R), Sinojackia rehderiana Hu [not finalized], Styrax americanus Lam. (S-U).
• Fruit. 1 of 11. Sinojackia xylocarpa Hu: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 11. Sinojackia xylocarpa Hu: seeds. • Fruit. 3 of 11. Styrax americanus Lam.: fruit. • Seed. 4 of 11. Styrax americanus Lam.: seed. • Embryo. 5 of 11. Alniphyllum fortunei (Hemsl.) Makino: embryo. • Embryo. 7 of 11. Halesia carolina L.: embryo. • Embryo. 9 of 11. Styrax maninul B. Walln.: embryo. • Embryo. 10 of 11. Sinojackia xylocarpa Hu: embryo. • Embryo. 11 of 11. Styrax americanus Lam.: 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’.
