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Key to Anacardiaceae

Anacardiaceae

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(c) Bradley, Keith
1 Leaves simple.
(c) Bradley, Keith
  2 Leaves oblong-lanceolate, > 4× as long as wide; leaf apices acuminate; pedicels of the inflorescence never becoming villous; fruit to 30 cm long, with a conspicuously thick and fleshy mesocarp; [non-native, c. and s. FL]
(c) Ware, Richard & Teresa - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
  2 Leaves suborbicular, 1-1.5× as long as wide; leaf apices broadly rounded; pedicels of the inflorescence often becoming villous (on pedicels lacking drupes); fruit to ca. 0.5 cm long, with a thin and dry mesocarp; [native and non-native, occurring north and west of FL]
(c) Campos, Aidan
(c) Bradley, Keith
1 Leaves compound.
(c) Bradley, Keith
(c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY
    3 Leaves 3-foliolate.
(c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY
      4 Terminal leaflet sessile; fruit red, glandular-pubescent; foliage and stems lacking contact poisons
(c) Ward, Scott G
      4 Terminal leaflet distinctly petiolulate; fruit white or greenish, glabrous or with scattered trichomes; foliage and stems containing contact poisons
(c) Bradley, Keith
    3 Leaves pinnately compound, with (3-) 5-41 leaflets (at least the larger and better-developed on a plant with 5 or more leaflets).
(c) Fleming, Gary P.
        5 Leaf rachis winged (with a flange of leaf tissue, often irregular in width and terminating at each leaflet attachment).
          6 Fruits glandular-pubescent; stamens 5; inflorescence a terminal panicle, the central axis upright as a continuation of the stem
          6 Fruits glabrous; stamens 10; inflorescence of axillary panicles, the central axis angled from the main stem
(c) Hill, Sonnia
(c) Hill, Sonnia
             7 Inflorescence either a terminal panicle (the central axis stiff and upright) or of axillary or terminal clusters of short spikes
             7 Inflorescence of axillary or cauliflorous panicles, the central axis lax and often dangling.
(c) Campos, Aidan
               8 Leaves all or mostly even-pinnate (sometimes some leaves with an apparently terminal or obliquely subterminal leaflet)
(c) Cressler, Alan M.
               8 Leaves odd-pinnate.
                 9 Leaflets 19-41 per leaf, 2-5 cm long, 0.4-1 cm wide, averaging 5× as long as wide; leaflet margins often strongly serrate (to entire); [rare non-native in FL peninsula and s. TX]
                 9 Leaflets 3-25 per leaf, 2.5-20 cm long, 1.5-8 cm wide, averaging 1.2-3× as long as wide; leaflet margins entire or shallowly crenate.
                   10 Leaflet margin with obvious marginal vein; fruits 25-40 mm long; [rare non-native in s. FL]
                   10 Leaflet margin lacking marginal vein (though sometimes thickened and translucent); fruits 4-20 mm long; [collectively widespread].
                     11 Upper surface of leaflets dull, matte; inflorescences from the trunk (cauliflorous) or axillary; fruits 2-3 mm long; foliage and stems lacking contact poisons; [rare non-native in s. FL]
(c) Cressler, Alan M.
                     11 Upper surface of leaflets shiny, as if lacquered; inflorescences axillary near the summit of the stem; fruits 4-14 mm long; foliage and stems containing contact poisons.
(c) Bradley, Keith
                       12 Leaves 3-5 (-7)-foliolate; leaflet base rounded, subcordate, or cordate; leaflets 1.2-1.7× as long as wide; fruits orange or brown; [FL, Martin County southwards]
(c) Sorrie, Bruce A. - CC-BY
                       12 Leaves 7-13 (-15)-foliolate; leaflet base cuneate to rounded; leaflets 2-2.5× as long as wide; fruits white or yellowish; [widespread (though irregular) in our region, in FL south to Highlands County]
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Key F5: Woody angiosperms with alternate, odd-pinnately compound leaves

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1 Leaves very large, > 10 dm long
1 Leaves small to large, < 10 dm long.
  2 Stems armed with prickles or stipular or nodal spines; leaves often also with prickles.
    3 Leaves with conspicuous leafy stipules, often adnate to the petiole; plant a liana or small to medium shrub; leaves serrate, often sharply and prominently so; leaves not strongly aromatic when fresh, lacking pellucid punctate glands on the surface
    3 Leaves lacking leafy stipules; plant a tree or tall shrub; leaves entire or obscurely crenate or serrate; plant a tree or tall shrub; leaves either strongly aromatic when fresh, with conspicuous pellucid punctate glands or not aromatic and not pellucid-punctate.
      4 Leaves not aromatic when fresh, lacking pellucid punctate glands; leaves never with prickles on the rachis; leaflet apices rounded
(c) Fleming, Gary P.
(c) Keim, Mary - CC-BY-NC-SA, permission granted to NCBG
      4 Leaves strongly aromatic when fresh, with conspicuous pellucid punctate glands; leaves often with prickles on the rachis; leaflet apices usually acuminate
  2 Stems unarmed (leaflets with spinose margins in some species, or the stem with dense hispid hairs, but these not particularly sharp to the touch).
          6 Plant an upright shrub or tree, not climbing.
             7 Plant a medium or tall tree.
               8 Leaves with stipules; flowers bilaterally symmetrical, papilionaceous, white, cream, or pink; stamens 10; fruit a legume; [collectively widespread in our area]
               8 Leaves without stipules; flowers radially symmetrical, whitish; stamens 5 or 10; fruit a single-seeded drupe; [FL peninsula]
             7 Plant a shrub or small tree to 7 (-10) m tall.
                 9 Leaf > 8 cm long, with 5-many leaflets.
                   10 Flowers bilaterally symmetrical, papilionaceous (reduced in Amorpha to a single petal); stamens 10; fruit a legume; leaves with stipules (stipulate).
                   10 Flowers radially symmetrical, stamens 4-5 (to 10+ in Simarouba); fruit either a drupe (Anacardiaceae, Simaroubaceae), or a 1-3-seeded berry or a samara (Picramniaceae); leaves without stipules (exstipulate).
                       12 Plants with pellucid (translucent) gland dots (usually variously present across vegetative and flowering parts)
                          13 Carpels remaining united, forming a compound fruit (the fruits various)
                          13 Carpels becoming distinct, each forming a simple drupe (although the fruit collectively sometimes a druparia, or cluster of drupe-like fruits)
        5 Leaflets serrate or crenate (sometimes minutely so, look closely).
                            14 Leaflets crenate or crenulate, the teeth rounded and coarse (Cupania) or often inconspicuous or minute.
                              15 Fruit a fleshy berry, red to dark orange at maturity; leaf surfaces often (but not always) with punctate glands; flowers white, solitary or in small fascicles; [uncommon non-native, s. FL]
                              15 Fruit a capsule, drupe, or shizocarp of mericarps, variously colored at maturity; leaf surfaces not glandular-punctate; flowers variously colored, the inflorescence paniculate or thyrsiform; [collectively widespread natives and non-natives, including s. FL].
                                16 Fruit a dehiscent capsule; mid to lower leaflets usually conspicuously alternate along the rachis, the leaflet crenations often coarse; [s. FL only in our area]
                                16 Fruit a drupe or schizocarp of 2-5 samaroid mericarps (these evidently winged); mid to lower leaflets usually opposite or subopposite along the rachis, the crenations often inconspicuous; [collectively widespread].
                                  17 Leaflets with obscure crenations, not as below nor bearing glands; leaf rachis narrowly to conspicuously winged, especially towards the tip; fruit a drupe; plant a shrub or small tree
                                  17 Leaflets (especially the basal and on the basalscopic side) with 1-5 large rounded teeth, each bearing a prominent dark green gland; leaf rachis not winged; fruit a schizocarp, with 2-5 samaroid mericarps; plant a medium to large tree
                                         20 Plant a tree, freely branched; rhizome inner bark not brightly colored; flowers unisexual, the male flowers in catkins, the female flowers solitary or few in a spike, the perianth greenish or tan and inconspicuous; fruit a nut covered by a dehiscent or indehiscent involucre
                                         20 Plant a short shrub, < 1 m tall, little branched; rhizome inner bark of fresh plants bright yellow; flowers bisexual, petals absent, the 5 petaloid sepals maroon; inflorescence a drooping panicle from the base of the new year’s growth; fruit an aggregate of follicles
                                             22 Leaves lacking stipules; flowers cream or yellow; fruit either a drupe or an inflated membranaceous capsule.