| | Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Synonyms: Triplostegiaceae A. E. Bobrov ex Airy Shaw
Common name: Valerian Family.
Number of genera 9. Number of species 400.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels united. Fruit anthocarp, or pericarpium; simple; nuculanium; simple; cypsela, or diclesium; without persistent central column; crowned by plumose calyx; with styles(s); at apex; within accessory organ(s), or not within accessory organ(s); within calyx; connate; persistent; hard calyx, or soft calyx; 1-seeded; 1-seeded; 3-carpellate (but 2 are reduced & empty); with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels not radiating at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style; with sterile carpels; not sulcate; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp brown (all shades); durable; glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs); hairs not glandular; without armature; smooth, or not smooth; without wing(s), or with wing(s); 1-winged; with wing(s) lateral; without apical respiratory hole. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; thin and hard; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; 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. Seed not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity without food reserves, or without apparent food reserves, or 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; 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; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; brown (all shades); thin; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo. Endosperm development cellular; scant; 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; completely filling testa (no food reserve), or nearly filling testa (trace or scanty food reserve); 1 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; linear (and oily); straight; parallel to seed length; with cotyledons gradually connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; with cotyledons containing oils; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.7–0.9 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 1.5–3 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; not foliaceous; moderately thick; flat; smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle moderately developed, or small; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Cosmopolitan (nearly). New World, Old World. North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia (??), Oceania.
Weed information
1 or more USA state noxious weeds.
USA states and territories with listed noxious weeds: Connecticut (CT).
USA state and territory noxious weeds: -- Valeriana officinalis L.: USA state noxious weed: CT●. -- Symbols: ªaquatic weed; ●terrestrial weed; °weed in seed. -- Last updated September 2008.
Listed seeds
ASOA listed seeds, ISTA listed seeds.
ASOA listed seeds: -- Centranthus ruber (L.) DC. -- Valerianella dentata (L.) Pollich -- Valerianella eriocarpa Desv. -- Valerianella locusta (L.) Laterr. -- Valerianella Mill. spp. -- Last updated September 2008.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Valeriana officinalis L.f -- Valerianella locusta (L.) Laterr.a -- Valerianella olitoria (L.) Pollich = Valerianella locusta (L.) Laterr. -- 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
Centranthus DC. -- Fedia Gaertn., nom. cons. -- Nardostachys DC. -- Patrinia Juss., nom. cons. -- Plectritis (Lindl.) DC. -- Pseudobetckea (Höck) Lincz. -- Triplostegia Wall. ex DC. -- Valeriana L. -- Valerianella Mill.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 1011. Coode, M.J.E. 1967. Materials towards a flora of Turkey: XV. Valerianaceae: Valerianella. Notes from Royal Bot. Gard. Edinb. 27(3):219–256; Ware, D.M.E. 1983. Genetic fruit polymorphism in North American Valerianella (Valerianaceae) and its taxonomic implications. Syst. Bot. 8(1):33–44.
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, 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, 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 embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Coode (1967), Engler & Prantl. Embryo illustration(s): LeMaout & Decaisne, Engler & Prantl.
• Fruit. 1 of 5. Astrephia chaerophylloides (Sm.) DC.: fruits. • Seed. 2 of 5. Astrephia chaerophylloides (Sm.) DC.: seeds. • Seed. 3 of 5. Valeriana officinalis L.: fruits. • Seed. 4 of 5. Valeriana officinalis L.: fruits without hairs. • Embryo. 5 of 5. Valeriana officinalis L.: 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’.
