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Common name: Ternstroemia Family.
Number of genera 11. Number of species 300.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) simple; 1; 1-pistillate. Fruit anthocarp, or pericarpium; simple; capsule, or drupe, or berry (not Spjut), or amphisarcum; loculicidal capsule (Visnea, Ficalhoa); capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry indehiscent; simple; without persistent central column, or with persistent central column; valves not diverging at top of central column; crowned by ciliate or not sepals, or style; with styles(s), or without style or stylar remnants; at apex; within accessory organ(s), or not within accessory organ(s); within receptacle and sepals; accrescent; persistent; more than 1 but less than 10-seeded to many-seeded; 4-seeded (to many); less than 1 cm long to from 5.1–10 cm long; 0.3–5 cm long; 2–5-carpellate (2–3–5); with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; without sterile carpels; without fleshy lateral appendage; in transection terete; apex not beaked, or beaked; apex long beaked; indehiscent, or dehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent irregularly, or regularly; passively; without replum. Epicarp black, or blue, or brown (all shades), or gray, or green, or orange, or purple; durable; chartaceous, or leathery, or hard, or woody; glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs); hairs short; hairs dense, or scattered; hairs not glandular; without armature; smooth, or not smooth; glandular (pustular dotted), or tuberculate (Anneslea); without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present; fleshy, or dry, or leathery; composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system. Endocarp present; crustaceous; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent, or present; a true aril; Anneslea red (dish); fleshy. Seed larger than minute, or minute; less than 1 mm long to 10 to less than 25 mm long; 0.5–10 mm long; triangular, or reniform, or angular, or oblong, or elliptic, or ovate; in transection compressed; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without apparent food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent, or present. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without pellicle layer; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; loose, or tight; shiny; surface smooth, or unsmooth; surface with depressed features, or discreet raised features, or merged raised features; surface punctate; surface papillate, or tuberculate; surface reticulate; 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, or with wing(s) (Ficalhoa especially seen when dry); 1-winged; without collar; without operculum; colored, or transparent; monochrome; brown (all shades), or black, or red (scarlet); woody, or bony, or thick; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted. Endosperm copious; with oils and proteins (Visnea); 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); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; C-shaped, or U-shaped, or straight; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons equal in size; not punctate dotted.
Distribution
Pantropical. New World, Old World. Middle America, South America, Africa, Asia Major, southeastern Asia.
Notes
Ternstroemia seeds covered with carmine red powder composed of epidermal papillae.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Adinandra Jack -- Anneslea Wall., nom. cons. -- Balthasaria Verdc. -- Cleyera Thunb., nom. cons. -- Eurya Thunb. -- Ficalhoa Hiern -- Freziera Willd., nom. cons. -- Sladenia Kurz -- Symplococarpon Airy Shaw -- Ternstroemia Mutis ex L. f., nom. cons. -- Visnea L. f.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 320 (from Theaceae). Kobuski, C.E. 1951. Studies in the Theaceae, XXIV: The genus Sladenia. J. Arnold Arbor. 32:403–409; Kobuski, C.E. 1947. Studies in the Theaceae XV: A review of the genus Adinandra. J. Arnold Arbor. 28:1–98; Chauhan, A.S. & T.K. Paul. 1993. Theaceae. In: B.D. Sharma & M. Sanjappa, ed., Flora of India, Portulacaceae to Ixonanthaceae, vol. 3, pp. 152–193. Botanical Survery of India, Calcutta; Prince, L.M. & C.R. Parks. 2001. Phylogenetic relationships of Theaceae inferred from chloroplast DNA sequence data. Amer. J. Bot. 88:2309–2320; Laikuan, L. 1998. Theaceae: Ternstroemoideae. In: L. Laikuan, ed., Flora reipublicae popularis sinicae, vol. 50, no. 1. Science Press, Beijing; Robson, N.K.B. 1961. Theaceae (Ternstroemiaceae). In: A.W. Exell & H. Wild, ed., Flora Zambesiaca, vol. 1, pp. 405–407. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London; Verdcourt, B. 1962. Theaceae. In: C.E. Hubbard & E. Milne-Redhead, eds., Flora of Tropical East Africa, pp. 1–8. Crown Agrents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London; Robyns, A. 1967. Theaceae. In: R.E. Woodson, Jr. & R.W.E. Schery, eds., Flora of Panama Part VI. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 54:41–56.
Illustrations
• Fruit. 1 of 3. Ternstroemia tepezapote Schlect. & Cham.: fruit with calyx. • Seed. 2 of 3. Ternstroemia tepezapote Schlect. & Cham.: seeds.
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’.
