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Key to Cistaceae

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1 Shrub, usually much branched from the lower stem; flowers solitary, terminal on the branches; leaves 1-3 mm long and scalelike, or 3-7 mm long and acicular; capsule cylindric, > 2× as long as wide
1 Suffrutescent herb, usually little branched from the lower stem (often much branched above, and in Lechea with specialized short basal shoots at ground level); flowers axillary or terminal in branching inflorescences; leaves 4-50 mm long, mostly linear, lanceolate, oblong, or elliptic; capsule globose, subglobose, ellipsoid, ovoid, or obovoid, < 2× as long as wide.
  2 Flowers of 2 types, the chasmogamous with 5 showy yellow petals, the cleistogamous lacking petals; pubescence of the stem stellate; leaves 10-50 mm long, alternate; plants with shoots of one type only, not producing short basal shoots; capsules 1.3-12.5 mm long, the larger capsules of chasmogamous flowers at least 2.0 mm long
  2 Flowers of 1 type, with 3 inconspicuous, dark red petals; pubescence of the stem simple; leaves 4-15 mm long (to 30 mm long in L. pulchella and L. mucronata), linear to linear-elliptic, 0.5-4 mm wide (to 13 mm wide in L. mucronata), alternate, opposite, or whorled; plants with shoots of two types, the short, prostrate to ascending basal shoots produced late in the season and overwintering; capsules 0.9-1.7 mm long

Key G4: shrubs and subshrubs with alternate, simple, unlobed, entire leaves

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1 Leaves evergreen. {add to 1a: Ternstroemia in PENTAPHYLACACEAE, Pyracantha in ROSACEAE, Thymelaea in THYMELAEACEAE; Chrysophyllum in SAPOTACEAE; Glycosmis parviflora in RUTACEAE}.
  2 Leaves 1-7 mm long, either acicular and spreading or ovate and appressed to the stems
  2 Leaves > 10 mm long.
    3 Leaves linear, > 15× as long as wide, usually sharply pointed at the apices (Ilex can have pointed apices, but leaves are not linear and marginal teeth often also present); [Monocots]
    3 Leaves broader, < 15× as long as wide, leaf apices variously shaped, if pointed usually not conspicuously sharpened; [Eudicots, Basal Angiosperms, or Monocots].
      4 Plant a creeping subshrub, < 1 dm tall
      4 Plant not creeping, > 3 dm tall (mature plants).
        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
          6 Inflorescence a raceme or panicle consisting of spherical heads, the fruit densely clustered in conelike heads but not cypselae; leaf abaxial surfaces with conspicuous pit domatia at the junction of midvein and secondary veins; plants salt-adapted shrubs of coastal habitats
        5 Inflorescence not an involucrate head, instead either solitary (Illicium in ILLICIACEAE) or variously branched, spicate, racemose, umbellate, or fascicled.
             7 Flowers with a 5-lobed, fan-shaped corolla opposing a conspicuously protruding and incurved style
             7 Flowers various, but not as above.
               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].
                 9 Carpels separate; fruit an aggregate; fresh foliage strongly fragrant; [Basal Angiosperms].
                   10 Fruit an aggregate of woody follicles arranged in a whorl
                   10 Fruit an aggregate of red to blackish berries, 4-6 mm long, each on a long stipe, giving the aggregate almost the appearance of an umbel
                 9 Carpels fused; fruit a berry, drupe, acorn (nut), capsule, or legume; fresh foliage not strongly fragrant; [Eudicots, Monocots, and Basal Angiosperms].
                     11 Ovary with 3 carpels; fruit a berry; “leaves” actually cladodes; [Monocots]
                     11 Ovary with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 carpels; fruit a berry, drupe, capsule, legume, or nut; leaves actually leaves; [Eudicots and Basal Angiosperms].
                       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}
                          13 Petals present, conspicuous, connate, white, the corolla rotate; fruit a berry with several seeds; fresh foliage with a strong, tar-like odor
                          13 Petals absent or inconspicuous, greenish and separate if present (note that the calyx is petaloid and white or yellowish in Elaeagnus of ELAEAGNACEAE); fruit a dry capsule with 3 seeds, or a drupe with a single seed; fresh foliage lacking a strong odor.
                            14 Perianth 4-merous; petals absent; petaloid sepals white to cream, fused and salverform; carpel 1; fruit a fleshy, red drupe, with a single seed
                            14 Perianth 5-merous; petals green and separate, or absent; sepals greenish, separate; carpels 3; fruit a 3-valved capsule with 3 seeds
                       12 Leaves with various vestiture (or glabrous), but not as above.
                              15 Flowers arranged in axillary spikes, umbels of shortened spikes, or sometimes the flowers solitary and leaf-opposing; fruit a drupe or drupe-like.
                                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).
                                       19 Flowers tannish, borne in catkins (these drooping at maturity); fruit a nut in a cupule (acorn)
                                       19 Flowers greenish-red or yellowish-green, borne in thyrses or if in catkins (Morella), these erect and globose in shape; fruit a winged, bladder-like capsule (Dodonaea) or globose, drupe-like, and covered in small, warty protuberances (Morella).
                                         20 Fruit a bladder-like, winged capsule (usually weakly 3-locular), brownish-red or brown when ripened; [peninsular FL from St. Johns County southward]
                                         20 Fruit globose, drupe-like, and covered in small, warty protuberances, blueish purple to black when ripened; [Gulf Coastal Plain from FL Panhandle and sc. GA, w. to e. LA]
                                    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).
                                             22 Flowers reddish-orange; corollas bearing post-staminal hairs (appearing as tufts of hair opposite each anther)
                                             22 Flowers white, greenish-white, yellow, or pink; corollas without obvious tufts of hair opposite each anther.
                                               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).
                                                 24 Plants with milky sap (exuded from petioles when removed from stems); sepals rusty-tomentose; [c. and s. FL only in our area]; {Add Lucuma and Mimusops}.
                                                    25 Fruit a smaller, glabrous berry (< 1 cm in diameter), green, purple, or black, glabrous, not roughened; petioles not with a decurrent adaxial wing forming a groove
                                                    25 Fruit a large, globose berry (2-8 cm in diameter), pale brown in color when mature, the surface roughened in texture; petioles with a decurrent, adaxial wing forming a groove
                                                      26 Leaves 1 per node; inflorescences axillary and paniculate (sometimes with terminal flower clusters present), never leaf opposed (although often bracteate); flowers tubular, the end of the tube often surrounding the anthers
                                                      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)
                                                          28 Seeds with fleshy aril or attachment (or if not fleshy, the seeds nutlets with abaxial ridges, as in Bourreria); ovaries 2-4 carpellate; flowers rotate; leaves entire or very remotely serrulate.
                                                            29 Fruit a drupe, the drupe bearing 4 bony nutlets with abaxial ridges; flowers rotate and salverform (the corolla tube evident), arranged in terminal cymes, the corolla lobes usually orbicular; leaves scabrous or hispid (except B. succulenta)
                                                            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
                                           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.
                                                                 31 Plants never producing pneumatophores; leaf blades variously pubescent or glandular, but lacking conspcuous marginal or apical pit-domatia; [collectively widespread natives]
                                                                       34 Inflorescence of sessile or subsessile fascicles, the flowers 5-merous, greenish-white (often with pink streaks or dots) and with obvious staminodes; fruit a 1-seeded fleshy to leathery drupe
                                                                       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.
image of plant
Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Leitneria floridana (male catkin), St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, St. Marks Unit, Wakulla County, Florida 1 by Alan Cressler
                                                                           36 Inflorescence a catkin; flowers unisexual; plants dioecious
image of plant
Show caption*© Michelle Wong, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Michelle W.
                                                                                  39 Fruit a globose, spinose capsule bearing a longitudinal ridge across 1 or both faces, thus essentially resembling a spikey ball; perianth (4-)5-merous, consisting of 3 upper connate petaloid claws and two lower sessile petals; fresh plants without a strange musky odor; [Eudicots]
                                                                                      41 Leaves elliptic or narrowly elliptic, broadest near the middle; fresh plants strongly fragrant with a citrus-like aroma; stems unarmed; fruit a drupe, with a single seed
                                                                                        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).