X
Keyed in multiple places:

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.

Key to Malpighiaceae

Copy permalink to share

1 Plant in flower.
  2 Styles 1 (-2).
    3 Larger leaf blades 10-16 cm long; petals densely sericeous on the outer (lower) surface; petals at least in part white or pink; plants lianas
    3 Larger leaf blades 1.2.5 cm long; petals glabrous; petals (all of them) yellow to orange; plants herbs or subshrubs
  2 Styles 3.
      4 Petals yellow (sometimes aging to orange)
        5 Shrub to 1 m tall
      4 Petals pink, lavender, red, white (or combinations of those).
          6 Shrubs or small trees; [s. FL or s. TX]
             7 Flowers in terminal racemes; leaves lacking glands, the margins entire
             7 Flowers in axillary umbels or corymbs; undersurfaces of leaves with (0-) 2-4 glands; leaf blade margin prickly (M. coccigera) or entire (M. emarginata)
1 Plant in fruit.
                 9 Flowers in terminal racemes; leaves lacking glands, the margins entire
                 9 Flowers in axillary umbels or corymbs; undersurfaces of leaves with (0-) 2-4 glands; leaf blade margin prickly (M. coccigera) or entire (M. emarginata)
               8 Fruits schizocarps, breaking apart into samaras, nutlets (unwinged), or cocci.
                   10 Mericarps nutlets or cocci (not winged but with a dorsal crest or keel); plants not lianas (herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs).
                     11 Flowers (fruits) borne solitary in leaf axils
                     11 Flowers (fruits) borne in terminal racemes
                   10 Mericarps samaras; plants lianas (occasionally shrubs).
                       12 Samaras with 3 elongate lateral wings; larger leaf blades 10-16 cm long
                       12 Samaras with 1 elongate lateral wing and 2 small crests; larger leaf blades 4-10 cm long.
                          13 Leaf blades 1.1-1.6× as long as wide; stems with white lenticels; secondary veins of the leaf blades obscure (not impressed)
                          13 Leaf blades 1.8-3× as long as wide; stems with brown lenticels; secondary veins of the leaf blades apparent and impressed on the upper surface