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.
4 Calyx lobes about equal, all shorter than the corolla tube; corolla 25-40 mm long; leaves to 15 mm wide | |
4 Calyx lobes distinctly unequal, all longer than the corolla tube; corolla 10-13 mm long; leaves to 5 mm wide | |
8 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] | |
10 Leaves whorled. | |
11 Aquatic; leaves 5-30 mm long, lanceolate, toothed to deeply dissected into linear segments; [tribe Gratioleae] | |
12 Petals 0; sepals 0, stamens 1; leaves both < 2 cm long and entire; [tribe Callitricheae] | |
12 Petals 4 or 5; sepals 4 or 5; stamens 2 or 4; leaves > 2 cm long, or serrate, or both. | |
16 Inflorescence compact, the inflorescence axis generally hidden by the closely packed and overlapping flowers; each flower subtended by large overlapping bracts | |
16 Inflorescence more diffuse, the inflorescence axis readily visible between the flowers; flowers lacking extra subtending bracts | |
18 Capsule turgid, roundish in ×-section; capsule longer than wide; leaves monomorphic; [collectively of many habitats and widespread]. | |
22 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 | |
Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key
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. Eryngium in APIACEAE, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.). | |
6 Ovary superior; inflorescence various, not an umbel; fruit various, a capsule, an aggregate of achenes or follicles, a ring of (>2) mericarps. | |
8 Perianth biseriate (uniseriate in Aphanes in ROSACEAE and in Trautvetteria in RANUNCULACEAE); flowers bisexual; plants lacking stinging hairs. | |
10 Perianth bilaterally symmetrical, either hooded or spurred; fruit an aggregate of follicles | |
11 Stamens showy, bright white, dilated towards the tip; pistils ca. 15; fruit an aggregate of utricles | |
11 Stamens not showy, white, or dilated towards the tip; pistils many (> 25); fruit an aggregate of achenes. | |
14 Corolla bilaterally symmetrical, the petals connate (except distinct in Delphinium in RANUNCULACEAE); fruit a capsule, a follicle, or a schizocarp of 3 1-seeded mericarps. | |
14 Corolla radially symmetrical, the petals distinct (fused and tubular in Ipomoea); fruit a capsule or a schizocarp consisting of a ring of 5-many 1-seeded mericarps. | |
19 Stamens many, connate into a stamen tube; carpels 5-many, completely or only loosely fused; fruit a capsule or a schizocarp of 5-many mericarps borne in a ring; calyx often subtended by an epicalyx (an additional calyx-like, green, foliaceous whorl of bracts) | |
19 Stamens 5 or 10, distinct; carpels 2 or 5, fused; fruit a capsule or a schizocarp of 5 1-seeded mericarps. | |