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Key to Berberidaceae

Berberidaceae

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(c) Ware, Richard & Teresa - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
1 Leaves 2-3-ternately compound; [subfamily Nandinoideae].
  2 Plant a shrub, with multiple leaves; flowers white
  2 Plant an herb, with 2 leaves; flowers green, greenish yellow, or maroon
(c) Hartley, Nate - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
(c) Bradley, Keith
1 Leaves simple (sometimes shallowly to deeply lobed), 2-foliolate, 3-foliolate, or 1-pinnately compound.
    3 Plant a shrub; leaves simple, palmately 3-foliolate, or 1-pinnately compound; flowers yellow; [subfamily Berberidoideae]
      4 Leaves simple, fascicled on short spur shoots; stems spiny; leaves deciduous or evergreen
      4 Leaves 1-pinnately compound or palmately 3-foliolate, either fascicled on short spur shoots (Alloberberis) or not fascicled (Mahonia); stems not spiny; leaves evergreen.
© Sonnia Hill
        5 Leaves palmately 3-foliolate; stems dimorphic (leaves fascicled on short shoots); berries red
(c) Bradley, Keith
        5 Leaves 1-pinnately compound; stems monomorphic (leaves borne on primary shoots); berries blue or black
© Scott Ward
    3 Plant an herb; leaves peltate, 2-parted or radially lobed; flowers white; [subfamily Podophylloideae].
(c) Ward, Scott G
          6 Plant acaulescent; flower solitary and scapose; leaf segments 2; fruit a capsule
(c) Danielson, Erik
          6 Plant caulescent; flower solitary, or cymose to umbellate, borne on a stem with leaves; leaf segments several; fruit a berry.
(c) Ware, Richard & Teresa - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
(c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY
             7 Flowers cymose or umbellate; stamens 6; berry globose, 8-12 mm long, 2-4 seeded; larger leaves with only 2 clefts that extend > halfway to the peltate center of the leaf (thus the leaf divided into 2 halves, the other sinuses shallow)
(c) Danielson, Erik
© Scott Ward
             7 Flower solitary; stamens 12-18; berry ovoid, 25-70 mm long, many-seeded; larger leaves with 5 or more clefts that extend > halfway to the peltate center of the leaf (thus the leaf fairly evenly divided into multiple lobes)
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Key F3: Key to Plantae

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1 Leaves evenly 2-pinnately compound
1 Leaves oddly pinnate-pinnatifid, 2-pinnately compound, or more complexly compound than 2-pinnate.
  2 Leaves pinnate-pinnatifid, with 7-19 leaflets, each leaflet pinnatifid into narrowly lanceolate lobes; {upper leaflet surface dark green, lower surface silvery with gray sericeous pubescence}
  2 Leaves 2-pinnately compound, or even more complexly compound.
    3 Plant a shrub or tree, not climbing.
      4 Plant armed with prickles on the stem, and sometimes also on the axes and main veins of the leaves
        5 Plant a shrub, < 2.5 m tall.
          6 Foliage green; leaflets ovate, acute at the tip; flowers 3-merous, the tepals white or cream; fruit a red berry
          6 Foliage blue-green; leaflets obovate, rounded or notched at the tip; flowers 4-5-merous, the sepals green, the petals yellow; fruit a capsule
        5 Plant a tree, > 3 m tall when flowering and fruiting.
(c) Ware, Richard & Teresa - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
             7 Leaflets entire
(c) Hartley, Nate - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
             7 Leaflets serrate.
(c) Bradley, Keith
(c) Bradley, Keith
               8 Fruit a globose drupe, tan at maturity, 10-15 mm in diameter; inflorescence an axillary panicle; corolla lavender
(c) Fleming, Gary P.
(c) Fleming, Gary P.
               8 Fruit an inflated capsule, 30-50 mm long; inflorescence a terminal thyrse; corolla yellow