| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Common name: Thurnia Family.
Number of genera 1. Number of species 2.
Angiosperm. Liliopsida.
Disseminule a dehisced fruit, or a seed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit pericarpium; simple; capsule, or berry (not Spjut); loculicidal capsule; capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; without persistent central column; within accessory organ(s), or not within accessory organ(s); within hypanthium (from fleshy calyx tube which sheds leaving fruit exposed); more than 1 but less than 10-seeded; 3-seeded (or more?); 3-carpellate; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection angled; 3-angled; apex not beaked; dehiscent. Dehiscent and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp durable; glabrous (without hairs); without armature; smooth; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp 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 fusiform; in transection terete; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; with caudate appendage(s) (subulate hispid process at each end); 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; surface unsmooth; 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; pubescent (hispid); with hairs over surface; with short hairs; with straight hairs; hispid; without glandular pubescence; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm copious; mealy; smooth; with starch; 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); 0.3 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; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleoptile; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; without stomata; not green; with 1 cotyledon. Cotyledons one and not modified into scutellum; not circinately coiled.
Distribution
New World. South America (Guayana: Amazon basin).
Notes
Spjut: "Hypanthium breaking at base as the fruit ripens, eventually shedding, leaving fruit exposed". Goldberg: "hypanthium from "fleshy" calyx tube". Gyonystylus woody loculicidal capsule. Mabberley: "Fruit dry-indehiscent, baccate or drupaceous, less often loculicidal capsule". Aquilarioideae & Gynostyloideae: fruit loculicidal capsule; Synandrophnoideae: fruit indehiscent. hypanthium scarcely developed; Thymelaeoideae: fruit indehiscent, hypanthium more or less developed. Embryo 7 times longer than wide. Seed with a process at each end.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
No ASOA or ISTA listed seeds.
Accepted genera
Thurnia Hook. f.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1131.
General references
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, 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
No fruit and acceptable seed illustration. Cronquist has no illustration. Disseminule illustration(s): seed, or embryo. Seed illustration(s): Dahlgren et al., Karen. Embryo illustration(s): Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 351: Thurnia polycephala Schnee (A-B).
• Fruits. 1 of 3. Thurnia sphaerocephala (Rudge) Hook. F.: dehisced fruits with calyx. • Seed. 2 of 3. Thurnia sphaerocephala (Rudge) Hook. F.: seeds. • Embryo. 3 of 3. Thurnia polycephala Schnee: 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’.
