Plant Families Flashcards
Amaranthaceae
Habit: herbs or shrubs (rarely trees or vines), often reddish, many halophytes
Stems: often succulent and/or jointed
Leaves: alternate, simple (A)
Stipules: none
Flowers: small, actinomorphic (B)
Sepals: usually 3-5, free or fused basally, surrounding the fruit (C)
Petals: absent
Stamens: as many as sepals, positioned on the inside of each sepal
Ovary: superior or half-inferior, 1-3 fused carpels, one locule and one ovule, basal placentation
Fruit: berry, capsule, or nutlet
Seeds: strongly curved (D)
Note: Chenopodiaceae is now included in Amaranthaceae
Amaryllidaceae
Habit: biennial or perennial herbs (monocots) with bulb (A) at base
Leaves: simple, narrow leaves in basal rosette (B), often only in two directions (2-ranked)
Inflorescence: terminal umbel (C), sometimes with bulblets on a leafless stem
Tepals: 6, anthers 6
Hypanthium: (fused tepals and base of stamens) often present (not in Allium)
Ovary: superior (D) or inferior, 3-carpellate
Fruit: capsule
Seeds: many, hard, black (covered with phytomelans)
Note: Onion-like smell in Allium
Note: Alliaceae is now included in Amaryllidaceae
Anacardiaceae
Habit: trees, shrub, lianas, or perennial herbs
Unique characters: resin ducts and laticifers (sap often toxic)
Leaves: often pinnately compound (A)
Flower: 5-merous, small, with nectary disc (B)
Stamens: 5 or 10 (B)
Ovule: onle per carpel, 1-5 carpels in a fruit
Fruit: drupe
Apiaceae
Habit: herbaceous
Unique characters: aromatic, some very poisonous (oils, resins)
Stems: hollow (A)
Leaves: alternate, often dissected or lobed (B), pinnate venation
Petiole: broadened with sheath (C) surrounding
stem or base of leaf
Flowers: arranged in double umbels (D); small, white or yellow, many
Petals: 5, not fused, sepals reduced or absent
Fruit: dry fruit that divides into 2 parts (E, schizocarp)
Note: Apiaceae sometimes includes Araliaceae.
Note: The characters listed here only work well for the temperate herbaceous Apiaceae.
Apocynaceae
Leaves: opposite, simple (A), pinnate venation
Leaf margin: smooth (A)
Stipules: absent (A)
Unique characters: Latex (milky sap) in all branches and leaves
Sepals: 5
Petals: 5, sometimes fused
Ovary: superior
Anthers: often fused, and sometimes fused with style head to a gynostegium (B), pollen in pollinia (C) in some species
Fruit: usually with 2 separate carpels, developing into 1-2 dry capsular parts or berries
Seeds: often with tufts of hairs at one end (D)
Note: Asclepiadaceae is now included in Apocynaceae.
Araceae
Habit: shrubs, vines, or herbs, sometimes aquatic; often fleshy
Unique characters: Rhizomes (A), corms, tubers common
Leaves: simple, with reticulate or parallel venation (B)
Inflorescence: terminal spadix of tiny flowers, subtended by a colored leaf/bract (spathe) (C)
Flowers: sometimes unisexual, highly reduced, sessile (D)
Fruits: usually berries (E)
Note: Lemnaceae is now included in the Araceae.
Asteraceae
Habit: herbaceous (usually)
Leaves: variable, with pinnate venation
Inflorescence: a head (capitulum, A) with many flowers,
with involucral bracts surrounding it (B)
Flowers: small, either tubular (C) or tongue-shaped (ligulate)
Sepals: absent
Petals: fused, usually with 5 small lobes (C)
Anthers: fused into a ring around style
Ovary: inferior
Fruit: dry nut (achene, D), often with hairs on top (pappus)
Betulaceae
Habit: Trees or shrubs
Leaves: simple, spiral (A)
Leaf margin: with teeth (A)
- *Inflorescence:** unisexual; male: hanging catkin (B),
female: short upright catkin (C)
Flowers: wind-pollinated, unisexual
Petals: absent
Styles: 2 or 3
**Fruit:** nut or 2-winged samara (D), surrounded by leafy bracts (E)
Boraginaceae
Habit: Herbs with stiff hairs
Leaves: alternate, simple
Inflorescence: a scorpioid or helicoid cyme (A)
Flowers: sympetalous, actinomorphic, 5-merous
Corolla: often pink as young, then blue or purple (B)
Anthers: attached to corolla (C)
Ovary: superior, 2-carpellate, 4 locules
Style: 1, attached to base of ovary, in center (D)
Fruit: schizocarp with 4 nutlets (E)
Brassicaceae
- *Habit:** Herbaceous
- *Unique characters:** mustard oils
Leaves: simple, alternate (A), often lobed, with pinnate venation
Leaf margins: often dentate (A) or lobed
Inflorescence: raceme
Petals: 4, not fused, forming a cross + from above (B),
white, yellow, or pink
Stamens: 6 (4 longer, 2 shorter)
Fruit: dry capsule with inner wall (silique; C)
Campanulaceae
Habit: Herbs, rarely shrubs or trees
Unique characters: latex
Leaves: usually alternate, simple (rarely compound), without stipules (A)
Petals: fused; 5
Corollas: either bellshaped (B) or two-lipped or tubular (C)
Ovary: inferior, with 2-5 carpels, axile placentation
Unique characters: with secondary pollen presentation, with pollen deposited on the outside of the style, or similarly (D)
Fruit: berry or capsule
Note: Lobeliaceae is included in Campanulaceae.
Caprifoliaceae
Habit: woody vines or shrubs, some herbaceous herbs
Leaves: opposite (A), rarely whorled, simple or divided
Flowers: arranged in a cyme, a head, or solitary
Corolla: fused, 5 petal lobes, often zygomorphic
Ovary: inferior
Fruit: berry or capsule
Note: Caprifoliaceae includes the following families now- Dipsacaceae, Valerianaceae.
Caryophyllaceae
Habit: herbaceous
Leaves: opposite (A), simple, with pinnate venation
Leaf margins: smooth
Stems: often with thickened nodes (A) at base of each leaf pair
Sepals: 5, fused (B)
Petals: 5, not fused
Fruit: dry capsule opening at top (C)
Seeds: attached to central column inside capsule; many, black, often strongly curved (D)
Convolvulaceae
Habit: herbaceous vines (usually), or woody vines, trees, or herbs
Unique characters: branches twining clockwise
Leaves: alternate, simple or divided
Flowers: often solitary, mostly 5-merous
Corolla buds: twisted (A)
Corollas: large, fused petals, trumpet- or funnelshaped, with 5 folds (B)
Ovary: superior (C )
Fruit: usually a capsule, less often a berry, nut, or drupe
Cucurbitaceae
Habit: vines
Unique characters: one tendril per node (A)
Leaves: simple, alternate, palmately veined, often lobed, no stipules (B)
Inflorescence: axillary, solitary flowers common
Flowers: unisexual (rarely not), with hypanthium (C)
Petals: fused or absent, 5
Anthers: 5
Ovary: inferior, 3 carpels, parietal placentation (D)
Fruit: berry or pepo (or capsule or samara)
Cupressaceae
Habit: Trees or shrubs
Unique characters: bark peels off in strips; branches often flattened in appearance (A)
Leaves: evergreen, scale-like (B)
Cones: unisexual, with few cone scales (C)
Female cones: sometimes berry-like, leathery (C)
Note: Taxodiaceae is now included in Cupressaceae
Cyperaceae
Habit: Herbaceous monocot
Stems: often as rhizomes (A) and upright culms (B); often 3-sided, without nodes, solid (not hollow)
Leaves: linear, grass-like, with parallel veins, arranged
at 3 angles (tristichous), sheathing at base
Inflorescence: often divided into male and female parts (C), as spikelets (D) on terminal branches
Flowers: small, unisexual, sitting behind a bract (E)
Sepals and petals: absent (rarely present)
Anthers: 3, hanging free
Ovary: superior, often inside a bottle-shaped structure (perigynium, F)
Fruit: a small, 1-seeded nut (achene)
Ericaceae
Habit: shrubs or small trees, sometimes herbs (some species mycotrophic and without chlorophyll)
Leaves: simple, without stipules; often leathery and evergreen
Flowers: actinomorphic (rarely bilateral), often hanging (A)
Petals: 5 (rarely 0-7), fused
Stamens: in two whorls, 5+5 (rarely less), attached to petals
Anthers: inverted (bent upside down during development), often with pores as openings (B)
Unique characters: with nectary disk inside stamens.
Ovary: superior or inferior, usually with 5 carpels
Style: single
Fruit: capsule, berry, or drupe
Note: includes Monotropaceae and Pyrolaceae
Euphorbiaceae
Habit: herbs, shrubs, trees or vines
Unique character: with (usually white) latex
Stems: often succulent and fleshy (A)
Leaves: simple, two stipules often present (sometimes as two spines below each leaf, A)
Inflorescence: cyme or cyathium (B)
Flowers: unisexual, 5-merous (B); sometimes highly reduced without sepals and petals
Unique character: nectaries common
Ovary: superior, 3 carpels
Fruit: schizocarp, capsule, or drupe
Fabaceae
Habit: mostly herbaceous, some trees
and shrubs
Leaves: alternate, compound (A, with many small leaflets), sometimes with tendrils
Stipules: at base of each leaf (variable in size)
Corolla: of ‘butterfly-type’ (B), bilateral with 5 parts:
banner/standard, wings, keel (hidden between wings)
Style: hidden inside keel
Stamens: 10, 9 often fused, hidden inside keel
Fruit: bean (legume, C), dry capsule without inner dividing walls, and with seeds attached to one side
Seeds: split in 2, nutrients stored in dicotyledons inside seed
Note: The flower characters work only for subfamily Faboideae
Fagaceae
Habit: trees
Leaves: simple, usually alternate, often lobed (A)
Inflorescences: unisexual with male catkins or heads (B), and a few female flowers inside wooden bracts (cupule) at the base of the male inflorescence (C)
Bracts: woody
Flowers: unisexual, tiny, often highly reduced; wind-pollinated
Fruit: nut (acorn in oaks), surrounded by the cupule (D)
Geraniaceae
Habit: herbs
Unique character: often with aromatic oil glands and hairs, fragrant
Leaves: simple or compound, usually palmately veined
and lobed, alternate (A)
Stipules: common
Inflorescence: cyme, umbel, or flowers single
Flowers: actinomorphic or zygomorphic
Petals: 5, free (B)
**Stamens:** 10, in two whorls, fused at base into a ring, staminodes common (C)
Ovary: superior, usually 5 fused carpels, styles 5 (C)
Style: growing longer and firmer in fruit (D)
Fruit: capsule or schizocarp (E)
Iridaceae
Habit: herbs or shrubs
Unique character: rhizomes, corms, and bulbs common
Leaves: sometimes unifacial, or simple and linear-narrow, often sheathing at base, parallel-veined (A)
Inflorescence: terminal, spike, cluster or solitary flowers, often with bracts below (B)
Tepals: 3+3, sometimes of different sizes
Stamens: 3
Ovary: inferior, 3 fused carpels, 3 locules, placentation axile (C)
Style: often petal-like
Fruit: capsule
Juglandaceae
Habit: trees, deciduous
Leaves: alternate, pinnately compound (A), no stipules,
aromatic when crushed
Inflorescences: unisexual
Male catkins: long, hanging (B)
Female flowers: solitary or small groups
Flowers: reduced, no sepals or tepals; wind-pollinated
Fruits: drupe-like, but is a nut enclosed in fleshy or hard involucres (husks), sometimes these fall off (C)
Juncaceae
Habit: herbs, often with rhizomes (A) and perennial
Stems: sometimes round, hollow, or triangular, similar to leaves
Leaves: simple, grass-like and slender, parallel-veined, alternate, sheathing around stem (B), often tristichous (arranged in 3 rows)
Inflorescences: cymes or heads
Flowers: small, rather reduced, actinomorphic
Tepals: 6, not fused, brownish with thin margins (C)
Stamens: 6
Ovary: superior, 3 fused carpels
Style: 3-branched
Fruit: capsule, usually brown
Lamiaceae
Habit: herbaceous (some woody in the tropics)
Unique character: aromatic, with essential oils,
often hairy with glands in or on leaves or glandular hairs
Leaves: opposite, simple (A), arranged at 180 degrees angle to each other (looks like cross from above)
Stipules: absent (A)
Stems: usually quadrangular
**Flowers:** in groups (verticillasters) in leaf axils or in terminal spikes (B)
Sepals: fused, 5 (C)
Corolla: 2-lipped (D)
Stamens: 2 or 4 (E)
Fruits: 4 nutlets hidden inside calyx
Lauraceae
Habit: trees and shrubs
Unique character: with aromatic oil glands, leaves often punctate
Leaves: simple, evergreen, alternate, rarely lobed
Stipules: absent
Inflorescence: axillary, cyme, or solitary flowers (A)
Flowers: small, actinomorphic, with hypanthium
Tepals: 3+3, free
Stamens: 3-12, some as staminodes
Anthers: opens with 2 or 4 valves popping open (B)
Ovary: 1-carpellate, usually superior
Fruit: berry or drupe
Liliaceae
Habit: perennial herbs
Unique character: bulbs or rhizomes (A)
Unique character: does not smell like onion
Leaves: alternate (rarely whorled), often basal, sheathing at base, parallel-veined (B)
Inflorescence: terminal, raceme, or solitary flower
Tepals: 6, free (C), often spotted or striped, with nectaries at base
Stamens: 6, free
Ovary: superior, 3-carpellate, 3 locules (D), axile placentation
Style: single, stigma 3
Fruit: capsule
Seeds: flattened, ellipsoid to rounded
Magnoliaceae
Habits: trees and shrubs
Leaves: simple, alternate (A), with deciduous stipules around the buds in spring
Flowers: terminal, solitary, large (B)
Tepals: many ( rarely few), whorled or spirally arranged
Anthers: many (C)
Ovaries: many, apocarpous, on elongated structure in
center of flower
Fruit: aggregate of berries, follicles, or samaras
Malvaceae
Habit: herbs (shrubs or trees)
Unique character: stellate or peltate hairs (star-shaped or stalked scales)
Leaves: alternate, simple or palmately compound (A), with palmate venation (rarely pinnate); with stipules that fall off early
Flowers: actinomorphic, 5-merous, often with an epicalyx (extra calyx outside normal calyx; B)
Petals: free, 5 (C), often convolute in bud
Stamens: 5-many, often fused in a tube around the style or as separate bundles
Ovary: usually superior, 2-many carpels
Fruit: usually a capsule or a wheel-shaped schizocarp (D)
Note: This family now includes the tree family Tiliaceae. The characters listed here works best for temperate herbaceous Malvaceae.
Moraceae
Habit: trees, shrubs, or herbs; monoecious or dioecious
Unique character: often with latex (milky sap)
Leaves: simple, with stipules (A)
Inflorescence: axillary (head, catkin (B), spike, raceme, or flattened or urn-shaped receptacle)
Flowers: unisexual, very small (C)
Sepals: 0-10, fused at least at base
Petals: absent (D)
Stamens: 1-6
Styles: 2 (D)
Fruit: multiple of many 1-seeded achenes (nutlets; E), sometimes in/on a fleshy perianth or receptacle
Oleaceae
Habit: trees and shrubs (vines)
Unique character: no latex
Leaves: opposite, simple or compound, no stipules (A)
Inflorescence: panicle or raceme (B)
Flowers: actinomorphic
Sepals and petals: 4, fused (C) (reduced in wind-pollinated species)
Stamens: 2 (C)
Ovary: 2-carpellate, superior, 2 ovules in each locule
Fruit: drupe, berry (D), capsule, or samara
Orchidaceae
Habit: herbs, terrestrial or epiphytes
Unique character: tubers, corms and rhizomes common (A)
Unique character: epiphytic species with air roots
(with white velamen)
Leaves: alternate or whorled, often sheathing at base, simple, with parallel venation (B)
Inflorescence: raceme, spike, or solitary flower
Flowers: zygomorphic (C)
Tepals: 3+3, free, lower tepal, often enlarged into a lower lip (labellum, C), some with spurs or sacs
Stamen: 1, fused with style and stigma into a gynostegium/column
Ovary: inferior, 3-carpellate, inside 180 degree twisted flower stalk (resupinate)
Fruit: capsule, with many dust-sized seeds
Orobanchaceae
Habit: herbs, rarely shrubs
Unique character: fully or partial root parasites on
other plants, sometimes without chlorophyll (then white, brown, purple, red or pink)
Unique character: root system small (A) or haustoria
Leaves: opposite or alternate, simple, sometimes scale-like
Inflorescences: often with colored bracts (B), as racemes, spikes (B) or solitary flowers
Petals: 5, fused, 2-lipped (3 lobes on lower lip (C)
Stamens: 4, 2 long and 2 short
Ovary: superior, 2-carpellate
Fruit: capsule (D), 1-locular, with many tiny seeds
Note: Several genera have recently been moved from Scrophulariaceae into Orobanchaceae
Oxalidaceae
Phyrmaceae
Pinaceae
Habit: trees (rarely shrubs); monoecious
Unique character: bark not falling off in long strips
Unique character: resinous, fragrant
Leaves: linear needles, sometimes flattened,
1-10 in fascicles on branches, spirally arranged (A)
Male cones: smaller (B), fall off after releasing pollen, wind-pollinated
Female cones: large, with woody and spirally arranged cone scales (C), maturing over several years, each
scale with 2 winged seeds (D)
Plantaginaceae
Habit: herbaceous (rarely shrubs)
Unique character: hairy plants, often aromatic
Leaves: alternate or opposite
Flowers: bilateral (A, often 2-lipped)
Stamens: 4, 2+2 together (A)
Ovary: superior (B)
Fruit: dry capsule (B)
Seeds: attached to center of fruit (axile placentation); numerous
Note: many species previously belonged to Scrophulariaceae
Poaceae
Habit: herbaceous, seldom woody
Stems: often rhizomatous and/or with erect culms
(A, shoots); round, hollow, with nodes (B)
Leaves: linear, with parallel venation, sheathing, with ligule at top of sheath
Inflorescences: with terminal and axillary spikelets (C),
subtended by bracts (glumes)
Flowers: lacking sepals and petals
Spike (awn): often present on bracts
Stamens: 3, hidden inside bracts (D) (called palea and lemma)
Ovary: hidden inside palea and lemma
Style: often branched and plumose (feather-like)
Unique character: when flowering, styles and anthers hanging out from spikelets
Fruit: one-seeded nut (caryopsis)
Polygonaceae
Habit: herbs or shrubs, sometimes vines or trees
Stems: with swollen nodes
Leaves: alternate, simple (A), often with stipular sheath surrounding the stem at base of leaf (ocrea, B)
Inflorescences: in fascicles arranged in spikes or racemes (C)
Flowers: small, often pinkish or greenish (D)
Tepals: 3+3 or 5, fused at base (D)
Stamens: often with nectaries at their base
Ovary: superior
Fruit: 3-sided achene or nutlet with a single seed (E)
Ranunculaceae
Habit: herbs, lianas or shrubs
Leaves: alternate, simple or compound (A), often lobed or dissected, with or without stipules
Inflorescence: a cyme or flowers single
Flowers: with spirally arranged parts (B)
Sepals: often petal-like, free
Petals: free, few to many, often with nectaries (C) on inside base and/or spurred
Stamens: many (B)
Gynoecium: with few-many carpels, separate (apocarpous), superior (B)
Fruit: follicle, achene (D) or berry (often aggregated from several carpels); carpels, separate (apocarpous),
superior (B)
Rhamnaceae
Rosaceae
Habit: herbaceous or woody, often shrubs or trees
Stipules: (A) at base of each leaf
Sepals: 5, petals 5 (B), free
Hypanthium: (C, cup-like structure composed from the
fused petal, sepal, and stamen bases)
Stamens: usually numerous (D)
Fruit: type variable, often pome (apple-like), drupelets
(blackberry-like), drupe (stone fruit), dry capsules, or dry nutlets
Rubiaceae
Habit: herbs, shrubs, or trees
Leaves: opposite, simple with entire margin (A); with interpetiolar stipules (or stipules leaf-like to resemble
whorled leaves, B)
Inflorescence: cymose, or flowers solitary
Flowers: actinomorphic (C)
Sepals: (0)4-5, fused at base
Petals: 4-5, fused, corolla often trumpetshaped
Stamens: 4-5, inserted into corolla wall, as many as petals
Ovary: inferior, usually 2-carpellate, placentation axile (D)
Fruit: capsule, drupe, berry, or schizocarp, sometimes aggregate
Rutaceae
Habit: trees, shrubs, lianas (herbs), sometimes with thorns
Leaves: alternate, simple or compound, no stipules
Unique character: leaves often with oil glands as small dots inside leaves (fragrant)
Flowers: actinomorphic (A)
Sepals: 4-5, free or fused
Petals: 4-5, free or fused
Stamens: 8-many, often in groups, sometimes fused (C)
Ovary: superior, 4-many fused carpels, axile placentation (D)
Fruit: berry, drupe, schizocarp, or hesperidium (D, juicy part is swollen hairs); fruit wall often with oil glands
Salicaceae
Habit: trees or shrubs, dioecious
Leaves: deciduous, simple, alternate (A); with or without stipules
Inflorescences: as unisexual catkins (B)
Sepals and petals: absent (C)
Unique character: each flower with a bract below (C)
Unique character: each flower with nectaries
Ovary: from 2 fused carpels, style very short (D)
Fruit: capsule with many seeds (E)
Seeds: with long hairs (F) (wind-dispersed)
Scrophulariaceae
Habit: herbs, never parasitic
Stems: not angular
Leaves: alternate or opposite
Flowers: usually at least slightly zygomorphic (rarely actinomorphic, A)
Sepals: 5, fused at base
Petals: 5, fused at least at base (B)
Stamens: 2 or 4 (rarely 5), inserted into corolla tube (B)
Ovary: superior, 2 fused carpels
Fruit: capsule with many seeds
Solanaceae
Habit: herbaceous in temperate areas, often woody in tropics
Leaves: alternate (A), often lobed, often hairy, sometimes with prickles
Stipules: absent (A)
Sepals: 5, fused
Petals: 5, fused a little or a lot
Corolla: star-, trumpet-, or funnel-shaped or tubular
Ovary: superior (B)
Anthers: often fused, porate (C) (peppershaker-type)
Fruit: berry (D), drupe, or capsule
Seeds: many, attached to center of fruit (axile placentation, E)
Vitaceae
Habit: most often lianas, sometimes herbs or trees
Tendrils: opposite leaves (A)
Leaves: simple, palmate, sometimes divided or pinnate
Inflorescence: opposite a leaf on the stem
Flowers: small, 4-5 merous (B), with free sepals, free petals (fused on top in Vitis)
Fruit: berry (C)
