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Key P1: herbaceous dicots with alternate, 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. Eryngium in APIACEAE, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.). | |
2 Perianth uniseriate (represented only by undifferentiated tepals or sepals; look at the front and back of the flowers for two layers) or completely absent; flowers usually unisexual, less commonly bisexual). | |
3 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 | |
3 Inflorescence not a cyathium (and staminate or bisexual flowers with > 1 stamen; fresh plants lacking milky juice (except Stillingia in EUPHORBIACEAE); fruit various, not as above. | |
8 Flowers typically with 2 or 4 (-5) showy, white-colored tepals; leaves sometimes variegated; fruit unequally or subequally 3-winged capsules; [ornamental waifs or uncommon non-natives] | |
8 Flowers cyathia, not merely bearing showy tepals; leaf not variegated but sometimes bearing darkened red or black splotches; fruit capsules, but these not conspicuously winged; [natives and non-natives, usually not ornamental] | |
7 Leaf bases cordate to rounded. | |
9 Styles 3; fruit a 3-lobed, 3-carpellate capsule (1 carpel sometimes aborting); inflorescence either a terminal or leaf opposed raceme, or a dense axillary condensed cyme with conspicuous toothed bracts subtending the flowers | |
4 Leaf margins entire. | |
11 Ovary inferior (flowers epigynous, the ovary sitting below the perianth and androecium) or half-inferior (perigynous, the ovary sitting level with the remaining floral parts). | |
12 Leaf base cuneate, rounded, or truncate; calyx of 3-4-5 distinct sepals, radially symmetrical, white or yellow; fruit a dry, nutlike drupe or an achene. | |
15 Inflorescence a leaf-opposed spike or raceme, the inflorescence arising opposite of stem leaves (except Saururus, whose spikelike racemes are leaf-opposed and/or terminal); flowers visually white from white petaloid sepals, white bracts, or white stamens. | |
16 Sepals absent; carpels 3-4; stamens 2-6 (-8); fruit a capsule, a 1-seeded drupe, or a schizocarp of 3-4 mericarps; leaf bases cordate or subcordate; [Basal Angiosperms]. | |
15 Inflorescence not leaf opposed, instead arising with stem leaves (axillary) or terminal, the inflorescence not spikes nor racemes, instead either simpler (single axillary or glomerules of flowers) or more complexly branched (terminal or axilary panicles or terminal complex cymes); flowers white, reddish, scarious, or greenish. | |
22 Sepals not petaloid, inconspicuous, green or greyish in color; plants prostrate or erect, annual or perennial; leaves alternate OR either alternate or opposite (Amaranthaceae); achenes variously textured (smooth or textured, sometimes reticulate or verrucose, but rarely muricate). | |
27 Inflorescence not a dense, leaf-opposed spike, instead a terminal head or variously axillary or terminal (the flowers solitary or not, but not in a dense spike). | |
28 Flowers yellow; stamens numerous (15+), monomorphic or heteromorphic (inner and outer of differing length), conspicuously exerted from the flowers, often surpassing the ovary; leaves basally lobed or unlobed (often a mix in M. floridana and M. oligosperma) | |
28 Flowers blue or white; stamens fewer (usually < 10), monomorphic, if exerted, the ovary usually still apparent; leaves unlobed. | |
31 Petals 4-7; stamens 1× or 2× as many as the petals, 4-7, 8, 10, 12, or14; leaves herbaceous in texture | |
33 Petals connate (at least basally), 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8; carpels 1, 2, 4, 5, or 6 (rarely 3 in Reseda in RESEDACEAE); fruit a legume or 1-, 2-, or 5-loculed capsule (except a 1-seeded indehiscent pod in Krameria in KRAMERIACEAE). | |
34 Stamens 6-10 (-25), more than the number (4 or 5) of petals and the number (4 or 5) of the sepals; fruit a legume or a 1-6-carpellate capsule. | |
34 Stamens 4-5, less than or the same as the number (5) of the petals; fruit a 2-5-carpellate capsule. | |
38 Pistil 5-carpellate; capsule 5-locular, explosively dehiscent; inflorescence of axillary, small clusters of flowers | |
38 Pistil 2-carpellate; capsule 2 locular, opening gradually or not at all; inflorescence a terminal spike, raceme or panicle (or solitary, axillary flowers in Chaenorrhinum in PLANTAGINACEAE and Krameria in KRAMERIACEAE). | |
40 Stamens 5; corolla not spurred; capsule septicidal; pubescence of the stem and leaves either gland-tipped or dendritically branched | |
40 Stamens 4; corolla with a distinct spur or sac at the base between the the 2 lower calyx lobes (except not spurred in Digitalis and Schwalbea); capsule loculicidal (only at the summit in Antirrhinum and Chaenorrhinum, and septicidal in Schwalbea); pubescence of the stem and leaves neither gland-tipped (except in Antirrhinum and Chaenorrhinum) nor dendritically branched. | |
32 Corolla radially symmetrical (actinomorphic), petals connate or distinct; fruit various (including capsules). | |
42 Plants herbaceous vines, fleshy and mucilaginous, the leaves variously orbicular, ovate, cordate or sometimes elliptic; fruit utricles (small sacs surrounding an achene), partly to completely enclosed in the persistent, dry to somewhat fleshy perianth; sepals 2 | |
42 Plants not herbaceous vines, the leaves variously shaped; fruit various, but never utricles; sepals 4 or more. | |
43 Petals distinct (flowers apopetalous); stamens 5-many (4 or 5 in Capraria). | |
44 Pistils 4-10 (each 1-carpellate) in a ring, these sometimes fused basally, each with its own style/stigma; fruit either an aggregate of achenes or follicles or a 5 (-7) locular capsule. | |
46 Fruit an aggregate of follicles; leaves fleshy in texture; inflorescence; leaves entire of sparsely and coarsely serrate, with < 12 points per leaf; [plants primarily of dry habitats] | |
48 Petals 5 (rarely 4 or 6); sepals 5 (rarely 4 or 6); stamens 4, 5 (or multiples of 5), 6, or 12; fruit a capsule or a ring of mericarps. | |
51 Flowers 6-merous (the petals and sepals 6, the stamens 6 or 12); corolla pink or purplish (rarely white); fruit a septicidal capsule | |
51 Flowers 5-merous (the petals and sepals 5, stamens 5 or various multiples of 5); corolla white, yellow, reddish (including pinkish), or blue; fruit a loculicidal or septicidal capsule. | |
52 Stamens 5 ; corolla yellow or blue; capsule either 10-locular and septicidal (Linum) or 1-locular (with 3 carpels) and loculicidal. | |
53 Capsule 1-locular (with 3 carpels) and loculicidal (splitting along outer edges, not only at the top) | |
52 Stamens (4-) 10, 15, 20, 30 (-many); corolla white, pink, yellow, or reddish; capsule 2-, 3-, 5- (-10)-locular, loculicidal. | |
43 Petals fused (flowers sympetalous, this includes salverform and tubular flowers); stamens (4-) 5 (-7). | |
56 Plants herbaceous vines, fleshy and mucilaginous, the leaves variously orbicular, ovate, cordate or sometimes elliptic; fruit utricles (small sacs surrounding an achene), partly to completely enclosed in the persistent, dry to somewhat fleshy perianth; sepals 2 | |
56 Plants not with the above combination of characters, if herbaceous vines then fruit not utricles and sepals 4 or more. | |
57 Pistils 2, united only by the style and stigma; fruit a schizocarp of 2 follicles (often single by abortion); plant with milky juice when fresh; leaves entire; inflorescence an umbel | |
57 Pistil 1 (of 2 or 3 fused carpels); fruit a capsule, drupe, or a schizocarp splitting into 4 nutlets; plant lacking milky juice; leaves entire or serrate; inflorescence various (but not an umbel). | |
58 Ovary slightly to deeply 2-4-lobed (entire or shallowly lobed in Tiquilia and HELIOTROPIACEAE); fruit a schizocarp of 4 mericarps or a drupe; [BORAGINALES]. | |
60 Style gynobasic (originating from the base of the ovary's lobes); ovary slightly to deeply lobed; fruit a schizocarp of 4 mericarps | |
61 Plants usually strongly gray or white-colored and villous, growing in short, suffrutescent mounds or mats; leaves densely pubescent (hairs densely appressed adaxially, tomentose abaxially); inflorescence of solitary flowers or extra-axillary, never scirpioid; corolla lavender or whitish-lavender, the lobes 1.8-3.0 (-4.5) mm long, broadly rounded; [s. TX, westward; primarily of the Trans-Pecos region] | |
61 Plants variously glabrous or pubescent (sometimes villous), usually herbaceous, occasionally suffrutescent and mound or mat-forming; inflorescence variously elongate or racemose, often scirpioid (curved or coiled on one side of the inflorescence axis; e.g., Heliotropium), occasionally solitary (e.g., Euploca, in part; although in this case the leaves of the shrubby Euploca are significantly narrower); corolla variously colored (including lavender); [plants collectively widespread, including TX] | |
63 Plant an herb, erect or sprawling; leaves > 1.5 cm long. | |
67 Calyces not as above, flowers typically campanulate (not salverform), if tubular then not also 5-ribbed and capitate-glandular. | |
70 Flowers sessile or very-short pedicelled, solitary in the leaf axils. | |
70 Flowers either solitary and obviously pedicelled, or several in an axillary or lateral inflorescence. | |
72 Calyces not as above, flowers typically campanulate (not salverform), if tubular then not also 5-ribbed and capitate-glandular. | |
Key P3: herbaceous dicots with alternate, simple, and pinnately lobed 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. Eryngium in APIACEAE, or the fruit a cypsela in Cevallia in LOASACEAE, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.). | |
2 Perianth uniseriate, with only undifferentiated tepals; flowers many and small, greenish or brownish, inconspicuous individually; inflorescence of glomerules that are usually further aggregated into racemes or panicles; fruit an achene or utricle | |
2 Perianth biseriate, both sepals and petals present and differentiated (except uniseriate and of 2 white to cream-colored sepals 5-10 mm long in Macleaya in PAPAVERACEAE); flowers larger, usually with the petals prominently colored; inflorescence various, but not as above; fruit a capsule, silique/silicle, or a schizocarp of 2 mericarps. | |
3 Corolla radially symmetrical and either connate into a tube or distinct (except Reseda in RESEDACEAE, with bilateral symmetry but separate petals); stamens 5 or more; fruit a silique/silicle, a schizocarp of 4 mericarps, or a 1-, 3-, or 4-locular capsule (2-locular in Ipomoea in CONVOLVULACEAE and Glaucium in PAPAVERACEAE), opening variously. | |
4 Ovary inferior; fruit either a schizocarp of 2 mericarps (Eryngium), a 4-loculicidal (Oenothera) or apically dehiscent (Mentzelia) capsule with a persistent perianth (Mentzelia), or a cypsela (Cevallia). | |
6 Flowers solitary or in dichasia (Mentzelia) or if headlike, then plants with abundant trichomes, flowers yellow and fruit a cypsela with a persistent perianth (Cevallia); [LOASACEAE] | |
7 Stamens 5; fruits indehiscent (a cypsela with a persistent perianth), bearing one seed each; plants with four trichome types (knobbed, retrorse, dendritic, and stinging), these sometimes but not always all present on the same plant. | |
9 Corolla radially symmetrical; stamens 5 or 6. | |
11 Plant an erect or sprawling herb. | |
Key to Apiaceae, Key A: Apiaceae with simple leaves
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2 Leaves phyllodial (septate, hollow or flat, segmented); flowers white or purple; [plants of wetlands]. | |
3 Umbels compound; leaves tapering to a pointed tip, either flat or terete in ×-section. | |
4 Leaves flat in ×-section, with obvious parallel venation and less obvious septae / cross-partitions | |
4 Leaves terete in ×-section, the septae obvious. | |
5 Plants 1-11 dm tall, annuals, sometimes mat-forming and adventitiously perennial; fruits 1-3 mm long, with lateral ribs; rays 3-15 | |
5 Plants 6-24 dm tall, perennials from rhizomes or tubers; fruits 4-9 mm long, with lateral wings; rays 5-20 | |
2 Leaves “normal” (non-septate, flat, continuous, and in some cases lobed, toothed, or spinose-margined); flowers blue, yellow, white, or whitish-green; [plants of wetlands or uplands]. | |
6 Flowers in compound umbels; corolla yellow or white. | |
9 Leaves herbaceous or somewhat fleshy. toothed or lobed, but not spinose; inflorescence umbellate or verticillate; flowers white, greenish, or purplish; [collectively common and widespread]. | |
11 Leaves perfoliate; flowers yellow; [rare exotics]. | |
13 Flowers greenish or blue; leaves all simple (sometimes stem leaves lobed); inflorescence a head or very congested (subcapitate) umbel; [plants of wetland situations, prostrate, creeping, or erect]. | |
14 Inflorescence a very congested (subcapitate) umbel, with 4-9 flowers; leaves cordate at the base, long-petiolate, the petioles characteristically 2× as long as the leaf | |
13 Flowers yellow or purple; basal leaves simple, stem leaves usually compound; Inflorescence a compound umbel; [erect plants of upland situations]. | |
15 Fruits ribbed (with rounded, cordlike ribs), lacking thin-edged wings; flowers yellow; central flower of each umbellet either staminate and pedicelled, or pistillate and sessile; fruits all pedicelled in some umbellets (those with a staminate central flower), or the central fruit sessile in some umbellets (those with a pistillate central flower) |