Uvulariaceae Kunth
Including Compsoaceae Horan., Tricyrtidaceae
Habit and leaf form. Herbs, or shrubs. Perennial; with neither basal nor terminal aggregations of leaves; rhizomatous. Self supporting. Mesophytic. Leaves alternate; spiral, or distichous; petiolate, or subsessile, or sessile; non-sheathing (but sometimes amplexicaul); simple. Lamina neither inverted nor twisted through 90 degrees; entire; lanceolate, or ovate; palmately veined (palmate-parallel); cross-venulate, or without cross-venules; cordate, or attenuate at the base, or cuneate at the base. Lamina margins entire.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; mainly confined to one surface.
Lamina dorsiventral. The mesophyll containing calcium oxalate crystals, or without calcium oxalate crystals (Tricyrtis). The mesophyll crystals solitary-prismatic (cuboid). Vessels absent.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening absent. Xylem with vessels, or without vessels. Vessel end-walls scalariform.
Root anatomy. Root xylem with vessels. Vessel end-walls scalariform.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite. Floral nectaries present. Nectar secretion from the perianth.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in panicles, in racemes, and in spikes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose, or racemose. Inflorescences generally few-flowered panicles or thyrses, or spikes with paired or solitary axillary flowers. Flowers small, or medium-sized; regular; 3 merous; cyclic; pentacyclic. Perigone tube absent.
Perianth of ‘tepals’; 6; free; 2 whorled (3+3); isomerous; petaloid; without spots, or spotted (e.g. Tricyrtis); similar in the two whorls, or different in the two whorls (the outer tepals, or all of them, often with a nectariferous spur); white, or yellow, or white and purple, or yellow and purple (i.e. sometimes purple-spotted).
Androecium 6. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another, or coherent; if coherent 1 adelphous (the filaments cohering basally); 2 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 6; diplostemonous. Anthers basifixed; dehiscing via longitudinal slits; extrorse, or introrse. The endothecial thickenings spiral. Pollen grains aperturate; 1 aperturate; sulcate; 2-celled.
Gynoecium 3 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 3 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious to synstylovarious (style tribrachiate to various extents); superior. Ovary 3 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1, or 3; the three partially joined; apical. Stigmas when separate, 3; when joined into one, 3 lobed; wet type, or dry type. Placentation axile. Ovules 5–50 per locule (?); arillate, or non-arillate; anatropous; bitegmic; tenuinucellate. Embryo-sac development Polygonum-type (usually), or Clintonia-type (rarely). Endosperm formation nuclear.
Fruit fleshy, or non-fleshy; dehiscent, or indehiscent; a capsule (dry or fleshy), or a berry. Capsules septicidal, or loculicidal. Seeds endospermic. Endosperm oily. Embryo rudimentary at the time of seed release to weakly differentiated, or well differentiated. Testa seemingly nearly always without phytomelan; brown (mostly), or yellow (or ‘pallid', but perhaps black in Uvularia — Bentham and Hooker, 1880!).
Seedling. Hypocotyl internode present (short). Seedling collar not conspicuous. Cotyledon hyperphyll elongated; assimilatory; dorsiventrally flattened. Coleoptile absent. First leaf dorsiventral.
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Proanthocyanidins present; cyanidin. Flavonols present; kaempferol and quercetin. Ellagic acid absent.
Geography, cytology. Holarctic, Paleotropical, and Australian. Represented in eastern Asia, North America, Malaysia, New Guinea and Australia, but mainly Northern Hemisphere. X = 13, 14, 16.
Taxonomy. Subclass Monocotyledonae. Superorder Liliiflorae; Liliales. APG (1998) Monocot; non-commelinoid; Liliales (as a synonym of Liliaceae). Species about 50. Genera about 10; Clintonia, Disporum, Kreysigia, Kuntheria, Medeola(?), Prosartes, Schelhammera, Scoliopus(?), Streptopus, Tricyrtis, Tripladenia, Uvularia.
Illustrations. • Uvularia. • Technical details (Tricyrtis).
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).
