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Key to Plantaginaceae

Plantaginaceae

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1 Leaves alternate, at least those on the upper stem; calyx 5-merous; stamens 4.
  2 Corolla lacking a spur or pouch at the base
    3 Plants erect herbs, not vining; [tribe Digitaleae]
    3 Plants vining; [tribe Antirrhineae].
      4 Calyx glandular-pilose; corolla lacking a raised palate (the raised area of lower lip)
      4 Calyx glabrous; corolla with a raised yellow palate (the raised area of lower lip)
  2 Corolla with a distinct spur or broad pouch protruding between the 2 lower calyx lobes; [tribe Antirrhineae].
        5 Corolla with a broad pouch at the base (saccate or gibbose).
          6 Calyx lobes about equal, all shorter than the corolla tube; corolla 25-40 mm long; leaves to 15 mm wide
          6 Calyx lobes distinctly unequal, all longer than the corolla tube; corolla 10-13 mm long; leaves to 5 mm wide
        5 Corolla with a slender spur at the base.
             7 Flowers solitary in leaf axils.
(c) Pogacnik, Shaun - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
                 9 Leaves orbicular in outline, palmately lobed and veined; stems rooting at nodes
1 Leaves either strictly basal, or opposite or whorled throughout; calyx 0-, 4-, or 5-merous; stamens 1, 2, or 4.
                   10 Leaves strongly basally disposed, usually all the leaves basal (or with significantly reduced cauline leaves); petals 3 or 4, scarious and translucent in texture or otherwise dull-yellow and inconspicuous; inflorescence a spike; [tribe Plantagineae]
                     11 Plants with leaves usually all basal; petals scarious and translucent in texture, not bilabiate; fruit a circumsessile dehiscent capsule (i.e. a lid-bearing pyxide); [collectively widespread]
                     11 Plants with prominent basal leaves and reduced, sub-whorled, cauline leaves; petals yellow, bilabiate; fruit a loculicidal capsule; [s. OH w. to s. IL, northward]
                   10 Leaves cauline, either opposite or whorled; petal 0, or 4, or 5; inflorescence various.
                          13 Aquatic; leaves 5-30 mm long, lanceolate, toothed to deeply dissected into linear segments; [tribe Gratioleae]
                            14 Petals 0; sepals 0, stamens 1; leaves both < 2 cm long and entire; [tribe Callitricheae]
                            14 Petals 4 or 5; sepals 4 or 5; stamens 2 or 4; leaves > 2 cm long, or serrate, or both.
                                  17 Plants erect, moderately robust, usually > 4 dm tall, larger leaves > 5 cm long; inflorescences terminal (the bracts subtending flowers strongly reduced in size in comparison to main leaves of the stem); [tribe Cheloneae].
                                    18 Inflorescence compact, the inflorescence axis generally hidden by the closely packed and overlapping flowers; each flower subtended by large overlapping bracts
                                    18 Inflorescence more diffuse, the inflorescence axis readily visible between the flowers; flowers lacking extra subtending bracts
                                  17 Plants creeping, decumbent or erect, small, usually < 4 dm tall (except Mecardonia, to 5 dm tall), larger leaves < 5 cm long; inflorescences axillary (all or most of the flowers axillary to more-or-less normally sized leaves).
                                         20 Capsule flattened, compressed in ×-section; capsule wider than long, notched; leaves dimorphic, with narrow submersed leaves on the lower stems, and broad floating leaves just subtending the aerial inflorescences; [of vernal pools on granite outcrops in Piedmont SC, GA, and AL]
                                         20 Capsule turgid, roundish in ×-section; capsule longer than wide; leaves monomorphic; [collectively of many habitats and widespread].
                                           21 Flowers and fruits sessile or subsessile, the pedicels < 1 mm long; perennial; leaves papillose on the surfaces and margins
                                                 24 Corolla nearly radially symmetrical; corolla lobes about as long as the corolla tube; leaves palmately veined, with parallel veins diverging from the base, margins entire to crenulate; of aquatic to moist habitats, often somewhat succulent
                                                 24 Corolla distinctly bilabiate; corolla lobes shorter than the corolla tube; leaves pinnately veined, with a single main-vein and lateral veins diverging along it, margins serrate; of moist habitats, not succulent
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Key C7: rooted aquatics with simple, cauline, opposite or whorled leaves

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1 Leaves whorled, most nodes with 3 or more leaves.
  2 Leaves strongly toothed to pectinate
  2 Leaves entire or finely toothed.
    3 Leaves tipped by a callus (visible at 10× magnification); leaf margins entire; flowers many, grouped in a terminal involucrate head; [Eudicots]
    3 Leaves not callus-tipped; leaf margins finely toothed or at least with conical protrusions remaining from the disintegration of better-developed deciduous teeth; flowers solitary on elongate, flexuous stalks; [Monocots]
1 Leaves opposite, no nodes with 3 or more leaves.
      4 Cauline leaves in 2-many nodes.
        5 Leaves in 2-3 pairs, appearing verticillate; plants of marine waters; [of FL, MS, LA and southward]
        5 Leaves along stem at 2-many nodes; plants of fresh to brackish waters; [collectively widespread].
             7 Leaf margins (or at least leaf sheaths) serrate or minutely spiny; fruits sessile, entire; leaves 5-15× as long as wide
             7 Leaf margins (including sheaths) entire; fruit stalked, dentate on one side; leaves >20× as long as wide
               8 Leaves 1-12 cm long; flowers borne in axillary or terminal spikes or clusters
               8 Leaves 0.5-3 (-5) cm long; flowers solitary, axillary.
                 9 Carpels 4-5, separate; fruit an aggregate of follicles; leaves succulent
                 9 Carpels 2-5, fused; fruit capsular (variously dehiscent); leaves thin in texture or somewhat succulent (e.g. Bacopa in PLANTAGINACEAE).
                   10 Leaves dimorphic, the terminal leaves usually spatulate (strongly expanded towards the apex); corolla absent; stamen 1
                   10 Leaves monomorphic, obovate, oblanceolate, or parallel-margined; corolla present (absent in Didiplis in LYTHRACEAE); stamens 2-6.
                     11 Flower radially symmetrical, 3-4-merous; petals absent or separate
                       12 Stems lacking ridges running down from leaf bases
                       12 Stems with ridges running down from leaf bases
                     11 Flower bilaterally symmetrical, 4-5-merous; petals present, fused at least basally, forming a tube.
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Key S1: herbaceous dicots with opposite, simple, and unlobed leaves on the stem

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1 Inflorescence an involucrate head subtended by phyllaries, the heads solitary or many and variously arrayed in secondary inflorescences, the ovary inferior, the corolla connate and tubular at least basally, the calyx absent, the stamens 5, the fruit a cypsela
1 Inflorescence, flower, and fruit structure various, but not with the combination of features as above (sometimes the flowers in a head, e.g. Pycnanthemum in LAMIACEAE, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.; Carpobrotus is superficially asteroid, but heads are composed of numerous petaloid staminodia, and receptacles lack cypselae;).
  2 Leaves scale-like, stems fleshy; flowers embedded in the fleshy stem, no perianth present; [saline environments (coastal or rarely inland)].
  2 Leaves small to large; stems not fleshy (although sometimes plants generally succulent as in Sesuvium); flowers sessile or on pedicels; [collectively of many habitats, saline and not].
      4 Perianth of a single whorl (petals absent) (note that in Mirabilis in NYCTAGINACEAE the petaloid calyx is subtended by a 5-lobed fused set of involucral bracts).
        5 Leaves herbaceous, suborbicular, about as long as wide or wider than long; calyx 3- or 4-merous; stamens 4, 8, or 12.
          6 Plant ascending, with a single node (2 leaves); leaves > 6 cm long and wide; calyx 3-merous, brown to yellowish; stamens 12
          6 Plant creeping, with many nodes; leaves 3-15 mm long and wide; calyx 4-merous, yellow to greenish; stamens 4 or 8
        5 Leaves fleshy, linear, lanceolate, to broadly ovate, at least slightly longer than broad; calyx 5-merous; stamens 3, 5, or 10.
             7 Flowers axillary, sessile or nearly so, solitary or a few; petaloid sepals widely spreading, separate, usually with a subapical abaxial appendage; leaves linear to oblanceolate; stamens 5 or 30-50
             7 Flowers in terminal cymose panicles; petaloid sepals connate into a narrow tube (reminiscent of the corolla of Ipomoea), lacking subapical abaxial appendages; leaves lanceolate, elliptic, ovate, or broadly ovate; stamens 3 or 5
      4 Perianth in 2 whorls (sepals and petals both present).
(c) Littek, Arnim - CC-BY
               8 Plants succulent, mat-forming subshrubs; flowering heads showy and consisting of numerous petaloid staminodia; [waif, FL]
               8 Plants not as above.
                   10 Leaves distinctly 3-veined from the base, the 3 veins converging again at the leaf apex
                 9 Petals connate into a tube (at least basally); inflorescence often a head or dense terminal cyme (also axillary, or solitary on long peduncles).
                       12 Upright herb; flowers in axils or terminal corymbs
                     11 Petals 4 (or 6 or 8 in Richardia in RUBIACEAE); stamens 4, 6, or 8.
                            14 Inflorescence a head or more diffuse (see below), sometimes subtended by green bracts.
                              15 Leaves serrate; corolla bilaterally symmetrical (especially the flowers near the outer edge of the head); inflorescence a head
                              15 Leaves entire; corolla radially symmetrical; inflorescence a head or more diffuse (see below).
                                16 Petals acute; flowers in terminal panicles, cymes, or panicles, or axillary; plant habit various, not simultaneously with all the characters below
                                16 Petals broadly rounded; flowers axillary, solitary; plant a diffusely branched herb with linear leaves
                                  17 Perianth of a single whorl (petals absent) or missing entirely (petals and sepals both absent).
                                    18 Inflorescence a cyathium, consisting of a single pistillate flower (reduced to a single 3-carpellate pistil) and 2 or more staminate flowers (each reduced to 1 stamen), borne in a cup-like involucre, the involucre bearing pointed or rounded glands, these sometimes brightly colored and petaloid, mimicking an individual flower (the cyathia then secondarily arranged in terminal cymes, or solitary and axillary, etc.); fresh plants with milky juice; fruit a 3-lobed, 3-locular capsule
                                    18 Inflorescence not a cyathium (and staminate or bisexual flowers with > 1 stamen, except Callitriche in PLANTAGINACEAE); fresh plants lacking milky juice; fruit various, not as above.
                                               23 Leaves entire, or with a few very obscure crenations (Iresine) or basally disposed rounded lobe-like teeth (Atriplex); plants without stinging hairs.
                                                    25 Style 1; leaves generally either longer than 30 mm, or wider than 8 mm (if linear and smaller than those dimensions, then fleshy).
                                                                         35 Corolla radially symmetrical (or so slightly bilaterally symmetrical as to be mistakable as radially symmetrical); stamens as many as the corolla lobes (or 1 less in Ruellia in ACANTHACEAE, Buchnera in OROBANCHACEAE, Trichostema in LAMIACEAE, and Verbena in VERBENACEAE); carpels 2 or 3.
                                                                                    40 Stamens either 4, 1 fewer than the 5 corolla lobes, or 2 (with 2 staminodes); corolla usually slightly bilaterally symmetrical (the flower as a whole made bilaterally symmetrical by the 2 or 4 stamens).
(c) Cressler, Alan M.
(c) Cressler, Alan M.
                                                                         35 Corolla bilaterally symmetrical (or the corolla 2-lipped but the corolla lobes twisted so as to make the flower asymmetrical); fertile stamens fewer than the corolla lobes (except Plantago in PLANTAGINACEAE, which is equal, with 4 each; a few genera have a 5th, sterile, stamen which is obviously different in form than the 4 fertile stamens) (note that many corollas are bilabiate and the number of corolla lobes, 4 or 5, may be difficult to interpret); carpels 2.
(c) Ward, Scott G
                                                                                                 46 Inflorescence a thyrse, verticillaster, or terminal cyme, the flowers borne in cymose lateral branches; corolla strongly bilaterally symmetrical (rarely nearly radially symmetrical); stems square in ×-section (or sometimes rounded, especially on older growth); fresh plants often (but not always) aromatic
                                                                                                 46 Inflorescence of spikes, racemes, or heads, the flowers or fruits single at nodes; corolla often nearly radially symmetrical; stems rounded in X-section (rarely square); fresh plants usually not aromatic
                                                                                                                       56 Inflorescence of 1 or more terminal (and sometimes upper axillary) spikes or racemes; corolla 10-50 mm long (6-8 mm long in Phryma in PHRYMACEAE), white, pink, blue, purple, or yellow; fruit either a loculicidal capsule (OROBANCHACEAE) or a single seeded achene (Phryma in PHRYMACEAE).