Kingdoniaceae (Janchen) A.S. Foster ex Airy Shaw
~ Circaeasteraceae
Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Perennial; rhizomatous (the rhizome slender, branched, scaly, with a solitary leaf and flower arising from each bud). Leaves long petiolate; simple. Lamina dissected; sub orbicular; palmatifid (with five major, cuneate segments, these variously lobed and toothed); with radiating, dichotomous venation; without cross-venules (the venation open). Leaves exstipulate (?).
Reproductive type, pollination. Plants hermaphrodite. Floral nectaries present. Nectar secretion from the androecium (from the staminodes).
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary; axillary (on long scapes); small; regular. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent.
Perianth petaline; 4–7; free.
Androecium 11–21. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another. Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes 8–13; external to the fertile stamens (representing the outer members). Stamens 3–6. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; bilocular; tetrasporangiate.
Gynoecium 4–9 carpelled; apocarpous; eu-apocarpous; superior. Carpel stylate (the style short, persistent, deflexed in the fruit); 1 ovuled. Placentation apical to marginal (ventral, subapical). Ovules pendulous; orthotropous.
Fruit non-fleshy; an aggregate. The fruiting carpel indehiscent; an achene. Seeds endospermic.
Geography, cytology. Holarctic. Temperate. North and West China.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Ranunculiflorae; Ranunculales. Cronquist’s Subclass Magnoliidae; Ranunculales. APG (1998) Eudicot; peripheral Eudicot (non-core Eudicots, ‘neither Rosid nor Asterid’); Ranunculales (as a synonym of Circaeasteraceae). Species 1. Genera 1; only genus, Kingdonia.
Cite this publication as: ‘L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 14th December 2000. http://biodiversity.uno.edu/delta/’. Dallwitz (1980), Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000), and Watson and Dallwitz (1991) should also be cited (see References).