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Key to Caprifoliaceae

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1 Erect herbs; corollas purplish, red, or greenish.
1 Shrubs (erect or arching) or woody lianas; corollas white, yellow, red, or pink.
  2 Corolla usually > 10 mm long, bilaterally symmetrical; ovary 2-3-locular
  2 Corolla 3-8 mm long, radially symmetrical or nearly so; ovary 4-locular

Key J2: woody angiosperms with opposite, simple leaves with toothed margins {add [Abelia] CAPRIFOLIACEAE}

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1 Leaves evergreen.
  2 Plant a shrub, erect, not requiring support.
    3 Leaves with spiny margins; fruit a drupe; [uncommon horticultural escapes].
      4 Flowers 5-merous, the petals clawed; leaves usually small (ca. 2-3 mm long or less); [FL]
      4 Flowers 4-merous; petals not clawed; leaves larger (the longer leaves usually > 3 mm long); [NC northeastward]
    3 Leaves with crenate or serrate margins (the teeth not bearing small spines); fruits various; [widespread natives and non-natives]
        5 Leaves slightly to strongly fleshy; inflorescence a head; [maritime situations]
 Iva
        5 Leaves not fleshy; inflorescence either a head or otherwise; [collectively widespread].
          6 Leaves > 8 cm long, typically spotted with yellow, coarsely toothed; fruit a red drupe; [commonly cultivated, rarely seeding down nearby]
          6 Leaves < 8 cm long, not yellow-spotted, serrulate; fruit a capsule or purplish drupe; [plants native or cultivated].
             7 Inflorescence otherwise; [more widespread].
               8 Corolla tubular, campanulate, bilaterally symmetrical; fruit a 1-seeded achene (rarely produced)
               8 Corolla radially symmetrical, with 4-5 distinct petals; fruit a 2-10-seeded capsule or drupe.
image of plant
Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Euonymus americanus, fruit, Coke Ovens Park, Dunlap, Sequatchie County, Tennessee 2 by Alan Cressler
                 9 Fruit a 4-5-locular capsule, with 2 seeds per locule (though often fewer by abortion)
                 9 Fruit a (2-) 3-locular, purplish-black drupe, with (2-) 3 single-seeded stones
  2 Plant a subshrub, creeping shrub, or liana.
                   10 Leaves serrate (not spinose), serrulate, or crenate; [exotics and natives, collectively widespread].
                     11 Leaves slightly to strongly fleshy; inflorescence a head; [maritime situations]
 Iva
                     11 Leaves not fleshy; inflorescence otherwise; [collectively widespread].
                       12 Leaves on vigorous shoots with a few coarse rounded teeth towards the base (most leaves entire)
                       12 Leaves serrulate to serrate, the teeth uniformly around the margin or concentrated towards the tip; fruit dry, either indehiscent and 1-seeded or capsular and with several seeds.
                          13 Flowers 5-merous; petals fused; fruit indehiscent, 1-seeded; [montane, from e. TN, WV, and w. MD northwards in our area]
                          13 Flowers 4- or 5-merous; petals separate; fruit capsular, dehiscent, several-seeded; [collectively widespread in our area]
1 Leaves deciduous.
                            14 Leaves slightly to strongly fleshy; inflorescence a head, subtended by an involucre of phyllaries; [maritime situations]
 Iva
                            14 Leaves not fleshy; inflorescence, flower, and fruit structure various, but not with the combination of features as above (sometimes the flowers in a head subtended by bracts, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or petals separate, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.); [collectively widespread].
                                16 Stems not prickly; foliage smooth to variously hairy, but not scabrous.
                                  17 Leaves on vigorous shoots with a few coarse rounded teeth towards the base (most leaves entire), the larger leaves < 3 cm wide; lianas climbing by twining; fruit a fleshy berry; flowers 5-merous, with a fused, tubular corolla
                                  17 Leaves serrate, the teeth towards the leaf apex, the larger leaves > 4 cm wide; lianas climbing by adventitious roots; fruit a capsule; flowers 7-10-merous, with separate petals
                              15 Upright shrubs or trees, lacking any adaptations for climbing.
                                    18 Trees; leaves often a mix of alternate and opposite.
                                       19 Leaves harshly scabrous on the upper surface; fruit a multiple of achenes; leaf venation pinnate but irregular
                                       19 Leaves not scabrous; fruit a 2-4-seeded drupe; leaf venation neatly pinnate, the lateral veins nearly straight and parallel to one another
                                    18 Shrubs or trees; leaves strictly opposite (or often subopposite in RHAMNACEAE).
                                         20 Trees; leaves palmately-veined, with 5 or more veins from the base; [rarely naturalizing]
                                         20 Shrubs; leaves either triple-veined from near the base or pinnate-veined; [collectively widespread and common]
                                           21 Leaves strongly triple-veined from at or near the base of the blade, the 2 lateral veins arching towards the tip and rejoining the midvein or nearly so (becoming diffuse before rejoining); petals 4, white; stamens 15-90
                                           21 Leaves pinnate-veined; petals various, not both 4 and white (except sometimes in Hydrangea); stamens 1-15 (except 15-30 in Exochorda in ROSACEAE).
                                             22 Inflorescence more diffuse, with internal axes and pedicels; flowers not BOTH sympetalous and 4-lobed (except in Forsythia and Buddleja, which have conspicuous axillary or paniculate inflorescences); fruit 1-seeded, 2-4-seeded, or 4-many-seeded.
                                                 24 Corolla present; flowers larger, in terminal cymes, corymbs, racemes, panicles, or in axillary cymes or fascicles.
                                                      26 Petals separate; stamens 8-10 (-60) (or 4-6 in RHAMNACEAE and Euonymus in CELASTRACEAE).
                                                        27 Flowers 1 and terminal, or many, in terminal panicles or corymbs; stamens 8-10 (-60); stems brown, tan or gray.
                                                                                        42 Inflorescence various, but more diffuse, the flowers larger (> 5 mm in diameter, except for some flowers in Hydrangea in HYDRANGEACEAE) and loosely arranged (< 5 per cm of axis).
image of plant
Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Euonymus americanus, fruit, Coke Ovens Park, Dunlap, Sequatchie County, Tennessee 2 by Alan Cressler
                                                                                               45 Capsule pink to red; fruits solitary or in axillary cymes

Key J3: lianas with opposite simple leaves with entire margins {add Paederia in RUBIACEAE}

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1 Fresh plants with white, milky juice; pistils 2, united only by the style and stigma; fruit a pair of linear or fusiform follicles, 5-8× as long as thick (or longer), these variously shaped (terete, compressed, or prominently 3-angled)
1 Fresh plants with clear juice; pistil 1; fruit various, but not of paired, linear follicles.
  2 Liana (sometimes a partially scandent shrub) climbing by paired, recurved spines at the nodes; fruit an accessory fruit of a utricle embedded in a leathery expanded calyx
  2 Liana climbing by twining (occasionally forming shrub-like masses); fruit either a capsule (< 3× as long as wide), paired berries, drupeaceous (Petrea in VERBENACEAE), or a schizocarp of samaras (MALPIGHIACEAE).
    3 Flowers lavender; the showy calyx persisting well after petals fall; fruit drupe-like; [ornamental waif, c. and s. FL]
    3 Flowers not lavender, instead white, yellow, orange, or red; the calyx not showy and not persisting after the petals fall; fruit a capsule (Gelsemium), paired berries (Lonicera) or a schizocarp of samaras (MALPIGHIACEAE); [collectively widespread natives and non-natives].
      4 Petals clawed (the bases noticeably thinner than the broadened tips), the corolla not tubular; fruit a schizocarp of samaras; [uncommon non-natives, c. and s. FL; in part, Heteropterys, Hiptage, and Stigmaphyllon]
      4 Petals not clawed, of similar width from base to tip, the corolla tubular; fruit capsules (Gelsemium) or paired berries (Lonicera); [widespread natives and non-natives]
        5 Flowers white, pale yellow, orange, or red, distinctly to obscurely bilaterally symmetrical; leaves widest slightly below, at, or above the middle, the apex rounded, obtuse, to broadly acute; fruit paired berries
        5 Flowers bright yellow, radially symmetrical; leaves widest well below the middle, the apex acuminate; fruit a capsule