No key was found for the requested taxon, but it is the only child of Ericaceae. Showing where it is keyed below.
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 G4: shrubs and subshrubs with alternate, simple, unlobed, entire leaves
Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40718
3 Leaves broader, < 15× as long as wide, leaf apices variously shaped, if pointed usually not conspicuously sharpened; [Eudicots, Basal Angiosperms, or Monocots]. | |
5 Inflorescence an involucrate head or a raceme or a panicle consisting of spherical heads (Conocarpus in COMBRETACEAE). | |
6 Inflorescence an involucrate head, the heads consisting of a receptacle bearing few-many cypselae; plants of various habitats, but not forming dense stands of shrubs in coastal habitats | |
5 Inflorescence not an involucrate head, instead either solitary (Illicium in ILLICIACEAE) or variously branched, spicate, racemose, umbellate, or fascicled. | |
8 Leaves alternate, but usually clustered densely towards branch tips; leaves narrowly oblanceolate, 1-4 cm long; flowers yellow, 5-merous, the petals diminuitive (ca. 4 mm) and clawed basally (the petals often falling off by midday); [of coastal beaches, dunes, and hammocks; FL peninsula] | |
8 Plants not with the above combination of traits: leaves longer and variously shaped (if narrowly oblanceolate, leaves much longer than 40 cm long) usually well-spaced throughout the stems (if clustered, then other characters lacking); [plants widely distributed in a variety of habitats]. | |
12 Leaves largely covered with silver and/or bronze lepidote scales and/or dense stellate hairs below (visible at 10× or higher magnification), giving the lower leaf surface a slightly shiny to almost metallic appearance. {add Lyonia ferruginea and L. fruticosa in ERICACEAE; add Loropetalum in HAMAMELIDACEAE} | |
16 Flowers in spikes, axillary umbels (of shortened spikes), or the flowers solitary and leaf-opposing; leaves spaced, the bases oblique; stipules apparent, and clasping the stem; fruit rarely 3-angled (P. auritum), but not ridged; plants unarmed, the stems swollen at the nodes; branches somewhat zig-zagged, not arranged in conspicuous tiers | |
16 Flowers arranged in axillary spikes only; the fruit usually somewhat ridged; leaves clustered at branch tips (except T. arjuna), the bases typically cuneate; stipules reduced to glandular hairs at petiole base; plants armed or unarmed, the stem nodes not conspicuously swollen; branches arranged in tiers, the main branches erect, the lateral spreading horizontally | |
15 Flowers in other types of inflorescences, not spikes, if the inflorescence axillary only, then consisting of panicles or racemes (Cestrum) or subsessile to sessile fascicles (Myrsine and SAPOTACEAE); fruit various (acorns, berries, drupes, capsules, legumes). | |
17 Leaves 1-foliolate on the upper stems, sometimes 3-foliolate below, or all reduced to phyllodial spines; flowers papilionaceous, bright yellow; fruit a legume; stems bright green | |
17 Leaves simple throughout; flowers variously shaped but not papilionaceous; fruit not a legume, instead acorns, berries, capsules, or drupes. | |
18 Flowers apetalous; arranged in catkins (Quercus in FAGACEAE; Morella inodora in MYRICACEAE) OR thyrses (Dodonaea in SAPINDACEAE). | |
18 Flowers not apetalous, with a well-developed corolla, variously colored (white, cream, pink, greenish or reddish-orange), either urceolate OR tubular and with separate and spreading petals (rarely the perianth only consisting of green sepals), arranged in various terminal or axillary inflorescences, or sometimes solitary; fruit either a (3-) 5-valved capsule, or a spherical berry with (1-) 10+ seeds, OR a 1-8 seeded dry or fleshy drupe. | |
21 Flowers white to pink or reddish-orange, rotate, tubular, or urceolate (the petals also sometimes spreading apically, but united at least basally), in various terminal or axillary inflorescences or solitary; fruit either a 2-5 valved capsule (conspicuously linear-cylindric in CAPPARACEAE), a spherical berry with 10+ seeds OR a drupe bearing 4 bony nutlets (Bourreria). | |
23 Fruit a fleshy berry; inflorescences of axillary fascicles (SAPOTACEAE), axillary and paniculate (Cestrum) or in Solanum, leaf-opposed and variously arranged (terminal, axillary, and extra-axillary). | |
26 Leaves 1 per node or also paired (on one side of the stem) at some nodes (the leaves then uneven in size); inflorescences leaf-opposed; flowers campanulate, lacking a tubular corolla | |
23 Fruit not a fleshy berry, instead a valved capsule or a drupe bearing 4 bony nutlets (Bourreria); inflorescences terminal or axillary (or occasionally flowers solitary), never leaf-opposed. | |
27 Capsules pendulous and conspicuously elongate-cylindric, borne on a slender gynophore (a specialized stipe bearing the gynoecium); seeds white, grey, tan, or brownish in color and usually contrasting with the bright red interior of the capsules; plants shrubs or sometimes loosely scrambling over other plants; stamens usually much longer than the petals and conspicuously exerted from the flowers | |
27 Capsules (or drupes) erect, not linear nor long-cylindric, not borne on a gynophore; seeds variously colored, and sometimes surrounded by a fleshy aril (but the entire capsule interior not bright red); plants shrubs; stamens shorter than or only minimally longer than the corolla (not long exerted) | |
29 Fruit a capsule (the seeds with fleshy arils or attachments); flowers rotate, but not salverform (the corolla tube not lengthened), arranged solitary, few, or in cymes, terminal or axillary, the corolla lobes usually deltoid or somewhat triangular in shape; leaves glabrous or sometimes puberulent (Pittosporum), but the pubescence not rough. | |
30 Flowers few, not showy, green to greenish-white, inflorescence not densely arranged (flowers also sometimes solitary); capsules not beaked; leaves not revolute or undulate | |
30 Flowers numerous, showy, white; inflorescence densely arranged; capsules with short beak; leaf margins revolute or slightly undulate | |
21 Flowers white, rotate, the petals spreading, distinct (i.e., separate to the base; nearly so in Myrsine), not tubular; arranged in axillary fascicles or racemes or in subsessile to sessile axillary fascicles (Myrsine); fruit either a fleshy drupe with 4-8 pyrenes, or a dry to leathery single-seeded drupe. | |
33 Inflorescence an axillary fascicle or cluster, the fascicles short-pedicellate, subsessile, or sessile | |
34 Inflorescence of subsessile or short-pedicellate fascicles, the flowers 4-merous, white (lacking pink streaks or dots); fruit a fleshy drupe with 4-8 pyrenes | |
1 Leaves deciduous. | |
35 Inflorescence branched, spicate, a catkin, or consisting of a solitary flower or axillary clusters or whorls, not an involucrate head. | |
![]() Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Leitneria floridana (male catkin), St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, St. Marks Unit, Wakulla County, Florida 1 by Alan Cressler | |
38 Inflorescences consisting of solitary, axillary flowers | |
38 Inflorescence of 2 or more flowers; perianth 3-5-merous; fresh plants not musky-fragrant; fruits various, not as above. | |
40 Flowers 3-merous; fruit fleshy, red or greenish-yellow at maturity; ovary superior; [Basal Angiosperms or Eudicots]. | |
42 Fruit either a drupe or berry (indehiscent, and variously fleshy or dry) or a dry 3-valved capsule with 1 seed; inflorescence axillary (solitary, clusters, fascicles, or racemes), or in a terminal raceme (Pyrularia in SANTALACEAE). | |
43 Leaves with various vestiture, but not as above. | |
44 Ovary inferior or half-inferior; inflorescence an axillary cluster or raceme, or a terminal raceme. | |
45 Fruit an elongate drupe (definitely longer than thick), with 1 seed. | |
47 Fruits spherical, < 10 mm long. | |
49 Inflorescence a narrowly cylindrical raceme, clustered several to many at the tip of the previous year’s wood and below the current season’s growth; fruit < 3 mm in diameter | |
50 Fruit fleshy, with 4-8 seeds; leaf pubescence simple or absent. | |
51 Fruit yellow to red, the pedicel 10-30 mm long; leaf venation pinnate, but irregular and reticulated | |
51 Fruit dark red to black, the pedicel < 10 mm long; leaf venation very neatly pinnate, with the secondary veins nearly straight and parallel to one another |
Key G5: shrubs and subshrubs with alternate, simple, unlobed, toothed leaves
Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40719
1 Subshrubs or dwarf shrubs, aboveground stems creeping or erect, < 15 cm tall; leaves evergreen. | |
1 Shrubs, aboveground stems erect, > 30 cm tall; leaves evergreen or deciduous. | |
5 Inflorescence an involucrate (composite) 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 | |
5 Inflorescence, flower, and fruit structure various, but not with the combination of features as above. | |
9 Flowers rotate, fragrant, the petals white, arranged primarily in terminal cymes; fruit an orange or yellow drupe, each bearing 2 hemispheric nutlets (these each also composed of 2 seeds, thus the fruit bearing 4 seeds) | |
11 Petals yellow, clawed; sepals red and forming a persistent red receptacle (torus) bearing numerous blackened drupes. | |
6 Leaves deciduous {add [Fagaceae]}. | |
15 Leaves crenate-wavy, with 1-2 teeth per cm of leaf margin; pubescence of leaves and stems stellate | |
15 Leaves crenate or serrate, but usually not wavy, pubescence of leaves and stems simple {add to key; verify} | |
14 Leaves crenulate, serrate or serrulate, with >2 teeth per cm of leaf margin; leaves cuneate, rounded, or subcordate at base, not oblique; pubescence of leaves and stems absent or simple. | |
16 Leaves prominently 3-veined from the base. | |
16 Leaves pinnately veined. | |
26 Petals separate (or absent in Rhamnus alnifolia); stamens opposite to the petals (when present) and alternate to the sepals; fruit 2-4-locular, with 2-4 pyrenes | |
30 Stamens 10; ovary and capsule 3-locular; leaves obovate (widest towards the apex), the teeth obscure to coarse (usually < 4 points per cm of margin), and primarily in the upper half of the leaf; inflorescence a terminal or axillary raceme or cyme; hairs of the lower leaf surface either simple and appressed, or stellate. | |
31 Leaf margins regularly and evenly serrate in the upper half of the leaf (usually nearly entire towards the base); inflorescence an elongate, many flowered (>30) raceme borne at the end of branchlets of the season; corolla of separate petals, the stamens separate; hairs of the lower leaf surface simple and appressed | |
Key H: woody plants with whorled leaves
Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40722
2 Leaves needle-like or scale-like, terete, angled, or flat in ×-section, < 2 cm long; leaves (2-) 3-4 (-6) per node | |
2 Leaves flat, > 3 cm long; leaves (2-) 3 per node; [Eudicots]. | |
3 Plant a subshrub, < 3 dm tall, with < 10 leaves per stem. | |
7 Flowers white to yellow; capsules linear, >10× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with curly simple hairs; nectar glands present in the main vein axils on the undersurface of the leaf (visible from the underside or the upperside in fresh leaves and herbarium specimens as a triangle 1-4 mm on a side) | |
8 Leaves rounded or retuse at the tip (at least some obviously rounded in Pittosporum). | |
10 Ovaries 2-carpellate; capsules dehiscing along one major adaxial suture, appearing berry-like before dehiscence, the seeds often surrounded by a glutinous material | |
12 Inflorescences axillary; flowers pink; leaves thin and herbaceous, with prominent secondary veins arching parallel with the margin, also with branching hairs on the abaxial leaf midvein; plants with arching stems, these often tip-rooting; [native plants of wetlands] | |
12 Inflorescences terminal or axillary; flowers pink or white; leaves thick and leathery, lacking prominent secondary veins; plants not tip-rooting nor with branching hairs on the midvein; [exotics of uplands or wetlands, persistent or weakly naturalized] | |
13 Fruit berry-like with 2-locular ovaries; flowers white-colored, smaller; inflorescence axillary or pseudo-terminal. | |
13 Fruit follicles; flowers variously colored (including white), showy and salverform; inflorescence terminal. | |
14 Plants shrubs, 10-40 dm tall, much branched from the base; latex clear; flowers white, pink, or red, the anthers connivent and adhering to the stigmas; [commonly cultivated in our area (and sometimes persistent), particularly near the coast; NC s. to FL, w. to TX] | |
15 Flowers in a monochasial helicoid cyme; corollas red to orange; fruit a red to black berry (fleshy) |
Key J4: shrubs and subshrubs with opposite simple leaves with entire margins
Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40728
1 Plants terrestrial, autotrophic or hemiparasitic shrubs or subshrubs. | |
2 Leaves herbaceous or leathery (succulent in Borrichia), much wider than thick; [various habitats]. | |
4 Petals clawed, the bases noticeably thinned compared to the broader tips; fruit schizocarps, breaking into 2-3 nutlets or 1-seeded cocci; [in part, Aspicarpa and Galphimia] | |
5 Well-developed leaves 4-6 per stem; inflorescence a head subtended by 4 large white bracts | |
5 Well-developed leaves many per stem; inflorescence of individual flowers axillary in pairs or clusters or in terminal cymes. | |
9 Upright shrubs, unarmed. | |
11 Inflorescence a terminal head of many flowers. | |
12 Head flattened, either subtended by 4 large white bracts or by an involucre with >5 green phyllaries. | |
13 Head subtended by an involucre of >5 green phyllaries; leaves with venation otherwise; flowers 5-merous | |
11 Inflorescence otherwise (if terminal, the flowers not arranged in heads), either of a solitary flower, or one of a wide variety of inflorescences with flowers attached at different points along branched or unbranched axes (e.g. axillary). {add: [Lagerstroemia] LYTHRACEAE; [Rosmarinus] LAMIACEAE; [Buxus] BUXACEAE; [Exochorda] ROSACEAE; various other [see spreadsheet]} | |
16 Leaves not glandular-punctate and aromatic (only herbaceous Hypericum sometimes with black or transluscent leaf punctae, thus keyed instead in S1); flowers with 1-5 or 8-10 stamens; fruit not a berry, instead either a capsule (Hypericum), drupe (Cornus; Viburnum), follicle (APOCYNACEAE), or prominently ribbed and stipitate anthocarp (Pisonia). | |
17 Fruit lacking prominent glandular ribs, the fruit not generally sticky. | |
14 Inflorescence either terminal, axillary or leaf-opposed, if terminal elongate (not flat-topped) or flowers solitary; if axillary then variously arranged (sometimes also solitary in the axils). | |
21 Carpels many (> 9), either separate or fused; stamens many; perianth segments either many and undifferentiated into calyx and corolla, maroon, brown, or yellow (in CALYCANTHACEAE), or differentiated into a fleshy and persistent calyx of 5-9 sepals, and a deciduous corolla of 5-9 red (or white) petals (Punica in LYTHRACEAE). | |
22 Fruit a leathery, 4-15 cm in diameter, reddish, spherical berry with obpyramidal seeds surrounded by a juicy sarcotesta (pomegranate); perianth differentiated, the sepals fleshy and persistent on the fruit, the petals deciduous, 5-9, bright red to white; ovary inferior; branches typically armed with axillary spines | |
21 Carpels 1-5 (-6), fused; stamens either 1-5 or 8-10 (except 10+ in MYRTACEAE); perianth segments 4-5 or 8, variously colored; fruit a simple capsule, drupe, or berry (including berry-like fruit); flowers 2-many, in axillary or terminal inflorescences OR sometimes solitary (MYRTACEAE, SANTALACEAE, and THESIACEAE); [Eudicots]. | |
24 Leaves conspicuously glandular-punctate and aromatic, evergreen and usually coriaceous; fruit a berry or apically-dehiscent capsule; flowers with abundant stamens and a cup-shaped hypanthium. | |
24 Leaves not both conspicuously glandular-punctate nor aromatic, membranous and deciduous; fruit a drupe or berry; flowers with 1-5 or 8-10 stamens, with or without a cup-shaped hypanthium. | |
23 Ovary superior (flowers hypogynous); corolla primarily radially symmetrical (zygomorphic in Citharexylum in VERBENACEAE and MALPIGHIACEAE; absent in Forestiera in OLEACEAE); fruit either a 1-4-seeded drupe, or a many-seeded berry (or berry-like fruit), or a capsule. | |
28 Stamens 8-10, of 2 different lengths in each flower; petals separate, 4-5 (-7), pink purple, 10-15 mm long; stems strongly arching, rooting at the tips; [plants of flooded to saturated wetlands] | |
30 Petals clawed (the bases much thinner than the broader tips); fruit a drupe; inflorescence a terminal raceme (Byrsonima) or axillary corymbs or umbels (Malpighia); [in part, Byrsonima and Malpighia; some vining species will grow shrub-like, but those keyed in J3; TX and FL only in our area] | |
30 Petals not clawed, the width similar throughout; fruit a drupe or capsule; inflorescence axillary and terminal. | |
31 Fruit a loculicidal capsule, dehiscing into 3 valves; branches square in ×-section; leaves < 2 cm long; [exotic, cultivated and weakly established, of temperate areas] | |
31 Fruit a drupe with 2-4 pyrenes; branches round or nearly so in ×-section; leaves > 2 cm long; [natives, of peninsular FL] | |
32 Inflorescence a drooping axillary raceme (sometimes minutely so), flowers zygomorphic; fruit a drupe | |
32 Inflorescence various, if a raceme then not conspicuously drooping, flowers actinomorphic; fruit a drupe or capsule. | |
Key K: holoparasites and holomycotrophs
Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40730
2 Inflorescence a spike; flowers 3-merous (sepals 6, petals 0, stamens 9, carpel 1); fruit a 1-seeded fleshy drupe; fresh plants aromatic; [Basal Angiosperms]; [peninsular FL only] | |
2 Inflorescence a cymose cluster; flowers 4-5-merous (sepals 4-5, petals 4-5, stamens 4-5, carpels 2 and fused); fruit a 1-4-seeded dry capsule; fresh plants not aromatic; [Eudicots]; [widespread] | |
1 Stems erect, stiff, straight, variously colored (tan, red, violet, brown, white, pink); plants mycotrophic (or indirectly parasitic via a fungal intermediary), attached to fungi underground. | |
Key N2: herbaceous dicots with mainly basal, simple leaves
Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40737
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 subtended by bracts, e.g. Eryngium in APIACEAE, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or petals separate, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.). | |
2 Basal leaves 2-lobed, pinnately lobed, or palmately lobed (not considering cordate, hastate, or auriculate leaf bases as “lobed”). | |
4 Leaf lobing pinnate. | |
8 Corolla 2-lipped, bilaterally symmetrical or asymmetrical; stamens 2 or 4. | |
4 Leaf lobing palmate. | |
13 Petals 5; stamens 5; fruit a schizocarp of 2 mericarps. | |
16 Perianth of 5 green sepals and 5 colored petals. | |
18 Leaves 2, the single flower terminal and associated with the upper leaf; fruit an aggregate of berries | |
19 Hypanthium present, partially fused or not fused to the pistil; ovary partially inferior to superior | |
23 Leaf margins entire. | |
24 Inflorescence a terminal and/or axillary raceme, panicle, or cyme of many small flowers; fruit an achene; perianth uniseriate, of 0, 4-5, or 6 tepals. | |
24 Inflorescence either a terminal spike, or a 1-7-flowered terminal cyme, or of a solitary axillary or terminal flower; fruit various; perianth biseriate (of differentiated sepals and petals (except uniseriate, of 3 fused sepals in ARISTOLOCHIACEAE). | |
26 Flowers bilaterally symmetrical; inflorescence a terminal spike (with > 20 flowers); petals 4, usually scarious, transparent; sepals 4, green; stamens 4 | |
26 Flowers radially symmetrical; inflorescence either of a solitary flower or of a 1-7-flowered terminal cyme; petals 5, 8-12, or 0; sepals 5 (green), 3 (brown), or 5-9 (yellow); stamens 5, 12, or many. | |
27 Gynoecium either of a single pistil with 6 carpels or of a single pistil with 4 carpels or of 2 nearly separate carpels; fruit a simple capsule (or deeply 2-lobed); flowers white, brown, or greenish, either of 5 fused or distinct white petals and 5 fused or distinct green sepals, or of 3 fused brown or greenish petaloid sepals. | |
28 Flowers brown or green, of 3 fused brown or greenish petaloid sepals (and 0 petals); carpels 6; stamens 12; leaves 4-10 cm wide | |
29 Petals fused (at least basally in Dichondra); sepals fused; carpels 2; plant pubescent. | |
32 Flowers typically with 2 or 4 (-5) white-colored tepals; leaf bases conspicuously oblique (sometimes variegated); fruit unequally or subequally 3-winged capsules; [ornamental waifs or uncommon non-natives] | |
33 Carpels many, separate, spiral; petals yellow or white. | |
34 Flowers lacking a hypanthium; fruit an aggregate of achenes or aggregate of follicles | |
35 Flowers radially symmetrical; inflorescence an umbel (or composite of umbelliform units, or a terminal panicle. | |
37 Inflorescence a terminal raceme; perianth of 4 green sepals and 4 white petals; fruit a silique/silicle; fresh foliage in spring and summer with a strong garlic odor; larger leaves < 10 cm in diameter | |
36 Ovary inferior; inflorescence an umbel (or a composite of umbellate units); fruit a schizocarp of mericarps. | |
40 Leaves tubular, with a sutured ventral flange, erect or reclining, adapted as a pitfall for insects (flat, phyllodial leaves sometimes present as well, common in the winter in some species, such as S. oreophila) | |
40 Leaves flat, not sutured into a tubular shape. | |
44 Corolla white, lavender, or blue, 2-lipped and bilaterally symmetrical. | |
41 Stem leaves alternate; perianth radially symmetrical (less commonly bilaterally symmetrical); stamens 5, 6-8, 9, 10 (rarely 4). | |
50 Corolla bilaterally symmetrical (barely so in Limosella in SCROPHULARIACEAE); stamens 2, 4, 6, 8, or 10. | |
50 Corolla radially symmetrical; stamens 5, 10, 4-6, or 9. | |
57 Perianth of green sepals and more brightly colored petals; stamens 5 or 10; carpels 2, 3, 4, or 5. | |
58 Leaves lacking sticky gland-tipped hairs. | |
60 Inflorescence of a solitary, terminal flower; carpels 2-3 (-4). | |
61 Corolla of separate petals or united only for a short length (< ¼ its length). | |
60 Inflorescence of several to many flowers; carpels 5 (3 in Galax in DIAPENSIACEAE). | |
65 Inflorescence a somewhat to very diffuse panicle, with 3 or more orders of branching, not giving at all the impression that the overall inflorescence is made of racemose units. | |
67 Inflorescence of 1-several terminal and axillary racemes, the plant typically well-branched, especially from the base; stamens 5 | |
67 Inflorescence of a single, terminal raceme, the plant unbranched; stamens 10 (or 5, with 5 staminodes) | |