Pteridophyllaceae (Murb.) Sugiura ex Nak.
~ Fumariaceae
Habit and leaf form. Stemless herbs (with Blechnum-like leaves); non-laticiferous and without coloured juice. Perennial; with a basal aggregation of leaves (the leaves all radical); rhizomatous. Leaves alternate (surrounded at the base by several large, orbicular, membranous cataphylls); simple, or compound; if considered ‘compound’, very evenly pinnate. Lamina if considered ‘entire, very deeply dissected; oblanceolate to oblong; regularly, evenly pinnatifid. Leaves exstipulate.
General anatomy. Plants without laticifers.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; mainly confined to one surface (the abaxial); anomocytic.
The mesophyll without sclerenchymatous idioblasts.
Stem anatomy. Secondary thickening absent.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in fascicles. Inflorescences scapiflorous (the scape erect, simple or very slightly branched); (scapes) bearing more or less distant, two-flowered fascicles of flowers on slender pedicels. Flowers regular to somewhat irregular (almost regular); cyclic. Free hypanthium absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 6; 3 whorled (2+2+2); isomerous. Calyx 2; 1 whorled; polysepalous; neither appendaged nor spurred (and the sepals not lobed); not persistent (caducous); open in bud (not enclosing the flower bud). Corolla 4; 2 whorled (2+2); polypetalous; unequal but not bilabiate, or regular (the petals ‘subequal’); white; deciduous (caducous). Petals entire.
Androecium ostensibly 4. Androecial members unbranched; free of the perianth; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 4; oppositisepalous; alternating with the corolla members (diagonal); very shortly filantherous (without basal nectaries). Anthers oblong; all bilocular; tetrasporangiate (?). Pollen shed as single grains. Pollen grains aperturate; (2–)3(–4) aperturate; colpate.
Gynoecium 2 carpelled. Carpels isomerous with the perianth. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synstylovarious; superior. Ovary 1 locular (flattened). Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1; apical. Stigmas 2; commissural. Placentation basal. Ovules in the single cavity 2–4; non-arillate (at least, the seeds neither strophiolate nor carunculate); anatropous, or anatropous to campylotropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Outer integument not contributing to the micropyle. Endosperm formation nuclear.
Fruit non-fleshy; dehiscent; capsular-indehiscent. Capsules (two) valvular (siliculiform, dehiscence acropetal). Fruit many-seeded.
Physiology, biochemistry. Alkaloids present.
Geography, cytology. Holarctic. Temperate. Japan. N = 9.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Ranunculiflorae; Papaverales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Magnoliidae; Papaverales. APG (1998) Eudicot; peripheral Eudicot (non-core Eudicots, ‘neither Rosid nor Asterid’); Ranunculales (as a synonym of Papaveraceae). Species 1. Genera 1; only genus, Pteridophyllum.
Illustrations. • Pteridophyllum.
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).
