| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Sweetleaf Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 250.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; drupe, or nuculanium; without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s), or within accessory organ(s); within calyx (lobes); 1-seeded, or more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 1–5-seeded; from 1–5 cm long; 1–1.5 cm long; 2–5-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 not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp blue (ish); durable; without armature; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy, or corky, or hard (including woody); composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; hard, or bony; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; stone unilocular; not smooth, or smooth (seldom); with longitudinally & occasionally very high ridges, or ribs; without wing; with operculum; 1-operculate; without secretory cavities; with mechanism for seedling escape; without grooves, or with grooves; without longitudinal ridges; 1-porate (or 1 per fertilized carpel when pluricarpellate). Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute; reniform, 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; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; with crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle, or without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; with notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approaching each other, or 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; very thin; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm development cellular; copious; smooth; without starch, or with starch; with proteins and 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); 0.7–0.95 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; straight, or J-shaped, or arcuate, or U-shaped; oblique 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. Cotyledons 2; moderately developed, or tiny; 0.1–0.5 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, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Notes
Spjut's nuculanium covers the berry of authors.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Symplocos Jacq.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 504. Nooteboom, H.P. 1975. Revision of the Symplocaceae of the Old World, New Caledonia excepted. Leiden Bot. Ser. 1:1–335.
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., 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, 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): Nooteboom (1975), Engler & Prantl. Seed illustration(s): Nooteboom (1975), Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Engler & Prantl, Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 152: Symplocos theaefolia D. Don (A-B).
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Symplocos theaefolia D. Donn: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 3. Symplocos theaefolia D. Donn: seed. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Symplocos theaefolia D. Donn: 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’.
