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Synonyms: Camelliaceae DC.; Malachodendraceae J. Agardh, nom. illeg.; Sladeniaceae Airy Shaw
Common name: Tea Family.
Number of genera 8. Number of species 220.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or an intact or entire fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple, or schizocarp; amphisarcum, or capsule; coccarium (Spjut Fig. 22G); loculicidal capsule, or septifragal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; with persistent central column, or without persistent central column; valves not diverging at top of central column; not within accessory organ(s); 1-seeded to many-seeded; 1-seeded (to many); from 1–5 cm long; 2.5–3 cm long; 3–5-carpellate ((2–10)); 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; dehiscent, or indehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; coriaceous, or leathery, or hard, or woody, or corky; glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs); hairs short (minute & stellate); hairs widely scattered; hairs not glandular; without armature; smooth; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present, or absent. Endocarp present, or absent; 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.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute, or minute (rarely); less than 1 mm long to 10 to less than 25 mm long; 1–20 mm long; in transection terete, or compressed, or flattened; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without food reserves, or without apparent food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; tight; surface smooth, or unsmooth; surface with discreet raised features, or merged raised features; surface papillate; 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; with wing(s), or without wings; 1-winged; with wing at one end, or wing encompassing seed; with wing(s) solid; with solid wing(s) corky; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades), or black, or red; thin, or woody; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo, or surrounding food reserve. Hilum larger than punctate; oblong ((Tutcheria) Pyrenaria). Raphe conspicuous (winglike); texture as testa; shorter than seed. Endosperm development nuclear; trace, or thin, or scant, or moderate; smooth; 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, or basal to wing; 0.3–0.9 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate; with investing cotyledons, or spatulate cotyledons; straight, or arcuate, or flatly coiled (circinate); parallel to seed length; embedded in endosperm; with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; green, or not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.1–0.9 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 1–3.5 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle, or partially concealing hypocotyl-radicle; thin, or thick; flat, or crumpled, or once-folded, or controtiplicate; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle small to well developed; straight; not thickened. Plumule moderately developed.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan. New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Notes
Septicidal capsule is restricted to subfamily Bonnetioideae now in its own family Bonnetiaceae.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ISTA listed seeds.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Camellia japonica L. -- Camellia reticulata Lindl. -- Camellia saluenensis Stapf ex Bean -- Camellia sasanqua Thunb. -- Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze -- Camellia × williamsii W. W. Sm. -- 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
Apterosperma Hung T. Chang -- Archboldiodendron Kobuski -- Camellia L. -- Franklinia W. Bartram ex Marshall -- Gordonia J. Ellis, nom. cons. -- Laplacea Kunth, nom. cons. -- Laplacea Kunth -- Polyspora Sweet ex G. Don -- Pyrenaria Blume -- Schima Reinw. ex Blume -- Stewartia L.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 320 (also see Asteropeiaceae, Bonnetiaceae & Ternstroemiaceae). Prince, L.M. & C.R. Parks. 2001. Phylogenetic relationships of Theaceae inferred from chloroplast DNA sequence data. Amer. J. Bot. 88:2309–2320.
General references
Baillon, H.E. 1866–95. Histoire des plantes, 13 vols. Hachette and Co., Paris, 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], 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, LeMaout, E. and J. Decaisne. 1876. A general system of botany, 1,065 p. Longmans, Green, and Co., London, 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, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Poor fruit and seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Baillon, Gray, Engler & Prantl. Seed illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Baillon, Gray, Engler & Prantl. Embryo illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Baillon, Gray, Engler & Prantl, Martin, Corner.
• Seed. 1 of 7. Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze: seed. • Fruit. 2 of 7. Franklinia alatamaha W. Bartram ex Marshall: dehisced fruit. • Seed. 3 of 7. Franklinia alatamaha W. Bartram ex Marshall: seed cluster. • Seed. 4 of 7. Franklinia alatamaha W. Bartram ex Marshall: seeds. • Seed. 5 of 7. Gordonia axillaris (Roxb. ex Ker Gawl.) D. Dietr.: seeds. • Seed. 6 of 7. Schima wallichii (DC.) Korth.: seeds. • Embryo. 7 of 7. Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze var. sinensis: 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’.
