The Families of Flowering Plants

L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz


Implicit Attributes

Unless indicated otherwise, the following attributes are implicit throughout the descriptions, except where the characters concerned are inapplicable.

Habit and leaf form. Non-laticiferous and without coloured juice. ‘Normal’ plants. Leaves well developed. Plants with roots; non-succulent; autotrophic. Young stems not breaking easily at the nodes. Rhizome and root tissues not red-pigmented. Self supporting. Stem growth not conspicuously sympodial. When hydrophytic, non-marine. Leaves not connate. Leaf sheaths with free margins. Leaves not gland-dotted; without marked odour; with ‘normal’ orientation; not peltate. Lamina neither inverted nor twisted through 90 degrees; not conspicuously asymmetric. Leaves eligulate. Stipules not ochreate; without colleters. Axillary scales absent. Vernation not circinnate. Leaves (when compound) becoming compound from primordial lobes. Domatia not recorded.

General anatomy. Plants (when anatomy ‘known’) without laticifers. Plants (when anatomy ‘known’) without ‘crystal sand’. Plants (when anatomy ‘known’, for Monocots only) without silica bodies.

Leaf anatomy. Leaves (when anatomy ‘known’) without ‘pearl glands’. Epidermis without differentiation into ‘long’ and ‘short’ cells; without silica bodies. Guard-cells not ‘grass type’. Urticating hairs absent.

Lamina (when anatomy ‘known’) without secretory cavities. Cystoliths absent. The mesophyll (when anatomy ‘known’) without etherial oil cells; (when anatomy ‘known’, for Dicots only) not containing mucilage cells; (when anatomy ‘known’) without sclerenchymatous idioblasts.

Stem anatomy. The cortex (when anatomy ‘known’) without cristarque cells. Cortical bundles (when anatomy ‘known’) absent. Medullary bundles (when anatomy ‘known’) absent. Internal phloem (when anatomy ‘known’) absent. The secondary phloem (when anatomy ‘known’) not stratified. Xylem (when wood anatomy ‘known’) without tracheids; (when wood anatomy ‘known’) without fibre tracheids; (when wood anatomy ‘known’) without libriform fibres; (for Dicots only) with vessels. Tile cells (when wood anatomy ‘known’) absent. Pith (when anatomy ‘known’) without diaphragms.

Root anatomy. Roots without velamen.

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. The fruiting inflorescences not conelike. Flowers not in ‘spikelets’. Inflorescences not scapiflorous; without involucral bracts; not pseudanthial; espatheate. Bracts not calyptrate. Flowers not calyptrate; not resupinate; not exhibiting the androecium internal to the gynoecium; neither papilionaceous nor pseudo-papilionaceous; cyclic. Floral receptacle with neither androphore nor gynophore.

Perianth (for Monocots only) without spots. Calyx not represented by bristles; neither appendaged nor spurred; not calyptrate. Epicalyx absent. Corolla alternating with the calyx; not appendiculate. Corolla tube when gamopetalous, not noticeably adaxially split. Corolla not calyptrate; not spurred; not fleshy.

Androecial members unbranched; free of the gynoecium. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Staminodes non-petaloid. Stamens not didynamous, not tetradynamous; filantherous. Filaments not appendiculate. Anthers separate from one another; not becoming inverted during development; bilocular; unappendaged. Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains not dispersed as long filaments. The ulcus without an operculum; without an annulus.

Gynoecium non-petaloid. Carpel of apocarpous/semicarpous and monomeric gynoecia fully closed. Styles of apocarpous/semicarpous gynoecia free. Locules without ‘false septa’; of syncarpous gynoecia not horizontally divided. Styles when gamopetalous, without an indusium. Stigmas of syncarpous gynoecia dorsal to the carpels.

Fruit not an aggregate. The fruiting carpels of multiple fruits not coalescing. Fruit without fleshy investment. Gynoecia of adjoining flowers not forming a multiple fruit. The multiple fruits (when present) not coalescing. Endosperm not ruminate. Perisperm absent. Seeds not conspicuously hairy; with a testa; wingless; without amyloid. Embryo well differentiated. Testa without phytomelan. Micropyle not zigzag.

Seedling. Coleoptile (for Dicots, and for Monocots when seedling ‘known’) absent. Primary root for most Dicots (perhaps dubiously), persistent.

Physiology, biochemistry. Nitrogen-fixing root nodules absent. Mustard-oils (when chemistry ‘known’) absent. Polyacetylenes not found. Berberine absent. Andromedotoxin not recorded. Betalains (when chemistry ‘known’) absent. Inulin not found.

Peculiar feature. Gynoecium and fruit not as in Resedaceae. Lamina tip not abaxially pouched. Epicalyx not double and complex as in Triplostegiaceae.

Geography, cytology. Chromosomes with normal centromeres.


Cite this publication as: ‘L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 27th September 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