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Key to Cistaceae
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40151
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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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 |