Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.
1 Shrub or vine; leaves compound (or sometimes some to most of them simple in Clematis). |
2 Leaves opposite, distributed along the stem; sepals 4, white to blue or purplish, 10-50 mm long; wood not yellow; [subfamily Ranunculoideae, tribe Anemoneae] |
2 Leaves alternate, clustered together at the top of the usually unbranched, erect stem; sepals 5, maroon, 2-5 mm long; wood yellow; [subfamily Coptidoideae] |
1 Herb; leaves compound or simple. |
3 Leaves simple, sometimes deeply cleft or lobed into rounded or elongate segments; [subfamily Ranunculoideae]. |
|
|
3 Leaves compound, the leaflets either linear or more-or-less petiolulate. |
|
|
1 Leaves very large, > 10 dm long |
1 Leaves small to large, < 10 dm long. |
2 Stems armed with prickles or stipular or nodal spines; leaves often also with prickles. |
3 Leaves with conspicuous leafy stipules, often adnate to the petiole; plant a liana or small to medium shrub; leaves serrate, often sharply and prominently so; leaves not strongly aromatic when fresh, lacking pellucid punctate glands on the surface |
3 Leaves lacking leafy stipules; plant a tree or tall shrub; leaves entire or obscurely crenate or serrate; plant a tree or tall shrub; leaves either strongly aromatic when fresh, with conspicuous pellucid punctate glands or not aromatic and not pellucid- punctate. |
4 Leaves not aromatic when fresh, lacking pellucid punctate glands; leaves never with prickles on the rachis; leaflet apices rounded |
4 Leaves strongly aromatic when fresh, with conspicuous pellucid punctate glands; leaves often with prickles on the rachis; leaflet apices usually acuminate |
2 Stems unarmed (leaflets with spinose margins in some species, or the stem with dense hispid hairs, but these not particularly sharp to the touch). |
|
|
6 Plant an upright shrub or tree, not climbing. |
7 Plant a medium or tall tree. |
8 Leaves with stipules; flowers bilaterally symmetrical, papilionaceous, white, cream, or pink; stamens 10; fruit a legume; [collectively widespread in our area] |
8 Leaves without stipules; flowers radially symmetrical, whitish; stamens 5 or 10; fruit a single-seeded drupe; [FL peninsula] |
7 Plant a shrub or small tree to 7 (-10) m tall. |
9 Leaf 2-5 cm long, with 5-7 leaflets |
9 Leaf > 8 cm long, with 5-many leaflets. |
10 Flowers bilaterally symmetrical, papilionaceous (reduced in Amorpha to a single petal); stamens 10; fruit a legume; leaves with stipules ( stipulate). |
10 Flowers radially symmetrical, stamens 4-5 (to 10+ in Simarouba); fruit either a drupe (Anacardiaceae, Simaroubaceae), or a 1-3-seeded berry or a samara (Picramniaceae); leaves without stipules ( exstipulate). |
11 Inflorescence a panicle; fruit a drupe; [collectively widespread] |
12 Plants with pellucid ( translucent) gland dots (usually variously present across vegetative and flowering parts) |
12 Plants lacking pellucid gland dots. |
13 Carpels remaining united, forming a compound fruit (the fruits various) |
13 Carpels becoming distinct, each forming a simple drupe |
11 Inflorescence a raceme or compound thyrse; fruit a samara or 1-3-seeded berry; [s. FL] |
5 Leaflets serrate or crenate (sometimes minutely so, look closely). |
14 Leaflets crenate or crenulate, the teeth rounded and coarse ( Cupania) or often inconspicuous or minute. |
15 Fruit a fleshy berry, red to dark orange at maturity; leaf surfaces often (but not always) with punctate glands; flowers white, solitary or in small fascicles; [uncommon non-native, s. FL] |
15 Fruit a capsule, drupe, or shizocarp of mericarps, variously colored at maturity; leaf surfaces not glandular- punctate; flowers variously colored, the inflorescence paniculate or thyrsiform; [collectively widespread natives and non-natives, including s. FL]. |
16 Fruit a dehiscent capsule; mid to lower leaflets usually conspicuously alternate along the rachis, the leaflet crenations often coarse; [s. FL only in our area] |
16 Fruit a drupe or schizocarp of 2-5 samaroid mericarps (these evidently winged); mid to lower leaflets usually opposite or subopposite along the rachis, the crenations often inconspicuous; [collectively widespread]. |
17 Leaflets with obscure crenations, not as below nor bearing glands; leaf rachis narrowly to conspicuously winged, especially towards the tip; fruit a drupe; plant a shrub or small tree |
17 Leaflets (especially the basal and on the basalscopic side) with 1-5 large rounded teeth, each bearing a prominent dark green gland; leaf rachis not winged; fruit a schizocarp, with 2-5 samaroid mericarps; plant a medium to large tree |
|
18 Leaf serrations spinose |
18 Leaf serrations not spinose. |
19 Inflorescences axillary. |
20 Plant a tree, freely branched; rhizome inner bark not brightly colored; flowers unisexual, the male flowers in catkins, the female flowers solitary or few in a spike, the perianth greenish or tan and inconspicuous; fruit a nut covered by a dehiscent or indehiscent involucre |
20 Plant a short shrub, < 1 m tall, little branched; rhizome inner bark of fresh plants bright yellow; flowers bisexual, petals absent, the 5 petaloid sepals maroon; inflorescence a drooping panicle from the base of the new year’s growth; fruit an aggregate of follicles |
19 Inflorescences terminal. |
21 Inflorescence corymbose (flat-topped or rounded, as wide as long or wider); fruit a red pome |
21 Inflorescence paniculate (longer than wide); fruit various (see below), but not as above. |
22 Leaves stipulate; flowers bright white; fruit an aggregate of 5 follicles |
22 Leaves lacking stipules; flowers cream or yellow; fruit either a drupe or an inflated membranaceous capsule. |
|
23 Fruit an inflated membranaceous capsule |