The Families of Flowering Plants

L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz


Carpinaceae (Spach) Kuprianova

~ Betulaceae

Habit and leaf form. Trees, or shrubs. Plants non-succulent. Leptocaul. Mesophytic. Leaves deciduous; medium-sized; alternate; spiral to distichous; flat; petiolate; non-sheathing; simple. Lamina entire; pinnately veined (the laterals straight); cross-venulate. Leaves stipulate. Stipules intrapetiolar; free of one another; caducous. Lamina margins serrate, or dentate; flat. Vegetative buds scaly. Leaves without a persistent basal meristem. Vernation plicate (the folds parallel with the lateral nerves). Domatia recorded (from two genera); represented by hair tufts.

Leaf anatomy. Stomata anomocytic.

Lamina dorsiventral. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (Carpinus).

Stem anatomy. Cork cambium present; initially arising in the outer cortex. Nodes tri-lacunar. Internal phloem absent. Secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring. The secondary phloem stratified into hard (fibrous) and soft (parenchymatous) zones. ‘Included’ phloem absent. Xylem with vessels. Vessel end-walls simple. Vessels without vestured pits. Wood ring porous; parenchyma apotracheal. Sieve-tube plastids S-type.

Reproductive type, pollination. Plants monoecious. Gynoecium of male flowers absent. Anemophilous.

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in catkins (the female catkins terminal, the males representing short-shoots). The terminal inflorescence unit cymose (the female catkins with three-flowered cymules or with the central member absent, the males uninterpretable in the absence of bracteoles). Inflorescences different in form: the male catkins with bracts but no bracteoles and the flowers non-involucrate, the female flowers each with a large, membranous involucre formed of the bract and two bracteoles. Flowers bracteate; bracteolate (female), or ebracteolate (male); small.

Perianth sepaline (female), or absent (male); 1 whorled.

Androecium 4–12. Androecial members branched (often split almost to their bases), or unbranched. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4–12. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; bilocular (the locules more or less separate); tetrasporangiate. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; 3–5 aperturate; porate (without arci, the pores operculate or plugged); 2-celled.

Gynoecium 2 carpelled. The pistil 2 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious, or synstylovarious; inferior. Ovary 2 locular. Gynoecium transverse. Epigynous disk absent. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 2; free, or partially joined; apical. Stigmas dry type; papillate; Group II type. Placentation axile to apical. Ovules 1 per locule; funicled; pendulous (from near the top of the septum); anatropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Outer integument not contributing to the micropyle. Endosperm formation nuclear.

Fruit non-fleshy; indehiscent; a nut (small, 1-seeded, shed with the accrescent, trilobed ‘involucre’). Seeds non-endospermic. Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2. Embryo straight. Micropyle not zigzag.

Seedling. Germination phanerocotylar.

Physiology, biochemistry. Flavonols present; kaempferol, quercetin, and myricetin. Ellagic acid present (Carpinus). C3. C3 physiology recorded directly in Ostrya.

Geography, cytology. Holarctic and Neotropical. Temperate. North temperate.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Rosiflorae; Fagales. Cronquist’s Subclass Hamamelidae; Fagales. Species 47. Genera 3; Carpinus, Ostrya, Ostryopsis.

Illustrations. • Technical details (Carpinus).

Quotations

In time it waxeth so hard that the toughnesse and hardnesse of it may be rather compared to horn than unto wood
(Hence ‘Hornbeam’. Gerarde’s ‘Herball’, 1597)


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).

Index