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1 Plant woody or suffrutescent, a shrub or a small tree 1-10 m tall; petals present, showy, 8-20 mm long. |
2 Aquatic shrubs with arching suffrutescent or woody stems; leaves opposite or whorled; [native] |
2 Terrestrial shrubs or small trees with erect woody stems; leaves alternate to subopposite; [exotics cultivated and sometimes persistent]. |
3 Flowers in many-flowered terminal or axillary cymose panicles; fruit a loculicidal capsule |
3 Flowers solitary or several in terminal or axillary clusters; fruit a leathery berry (pomegranate) |
1 Plant not woody, an herb 0.1-1.2 m tall; petals absent or present, inconspicuous or showy, 1-10 mm long. |
 Show caption*© Steven Daniel, all rights reserved, uploaded by Steven Daniel 4 Fruit with 2-4 prominent spines; leaves coarsely toothed |
4 Fruit not spinose; leaves entire. |
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6 Floral tube ( hypanthium) swollen obliquely at its base; capsule dehiscing longitudinally along the upper surface |
6 Floral tube ( hypanthium) symmetrical; capsule dehiscing septicidally at the apex |
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7 Floral tube cylindric to turbinate, about 2× as long as wide |
7 Floral tube campanulate to globose, about 1× long as wide. |
8 Flowers or fruits (1-) 3-10 in the leaf axils (at least some axils with 2 or more flowers or fruits on a given plant) |
8 Flowers or fruits solitary in the leaf axils (never > 1 per axil). |
9 Capsule indehiscent; petals 0; sepals 4, broadly triangular, lacking intersepalary appendages; seeds spatulate or oblanceolate, about 1 mm long, minutely granular on one face and smooth on the other |
9 Capsule dehiscing septicidally; petals 0 or 4; sepals 4 (-6), triangular, with intersepalary appendages of size about equal to the calyx lobes; seeds hemispheric, about 0.3 mm long, the surface very finely reticulate |
1 Leaves (or leaf-like adventitious roots) 1- pinnately compound or divided (with a central axis bearing pinnae, the pinnae not further divided). |
2 Leaves crowded at the upper end of the stem, supported by inflated branches |
2 Leaves (or leaf-like adventitious roots) spaced along the stem, no branches inflated. |
3 Emersed leaves diamond-shaped, the blade < 2× as long wide, serrate only in the upper portion of its length |
3 Emersed leaves lanceolate, the blade > 4× as long as wide, serrate along its length |
1 Leaves dichotomously or otherwise complexly (2-3×) compound or divided. |
4 Plants bearing numerous bladder-like traps |
4 Plants lacking bladder-like traps. |
5 Leaves alternate; leaf segments complexly (but not dichotomously) branched. |
6 Leaf dissection 2- pinnate to 3- pinnate; flowers in racemes; petals 4, white |
6 Leaf dissection 2- ternate to 3- ternate; flowers solitary; petals 5, yellow or white |
5 Leaves opposite or whorled; leaf segments dichotomously branched. |
7 Leaves whorled; leaf segments entire or toothed with denticles. |
8 Leaf segments toothed with denticles |
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7 Leaves opposite; leaf segments entire. |
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1 Leaves broad, < 4× as long as wide. |
2 Floating leaves peltate |
2 Floating or emersed leaves cuneate to rounded at base. |
3 Floating leaves diamond-shaped, prominently serrate |
3 Floating or emersed leaves elliptic or suborbicular. |
4 Leaves emersed, lanceolate to narrowly elliptic; flowers 5 -merous; [Eudicots] |
4 Leaves emersed or floating, suborbicular or elliptic (if emersed, then suborbicular; flowers 3 -merous; [Monocots]. |
5 Leaves emersed, suborbicular |
5 Leaves floating, elliptic |
1 Leaves narrow, > 4× as long as wide. |
6 Leaves 0.3-1.4 cm long, very numerous and tightly spaced |
6 Leaves 2-35 cm long, fewer and scattered along the stem. |
7 Leaf divided into a sheath and blade, with a ligule 0.5-8 mm long at the juncture; inflorescence a spike, raceme, or panicle of spikelets |
7 Leaf not divided into a sheath and blade, but if basally sheathing lacking a ligule (though sometimes with 1-2 conspicuous stipules); inflorescence various, but not as above. |
8 Leaves terete, to 35 cm long, 0.3-2 mm wide; plants of marine habitats, growing submersed in salt water; [FL and the Gulf Coast of AL, MS, and LA] |
8 Leaves flat or terete, to 200 cm long; plants of fresh or brackish waters (if of marine waters, Zostera, the leaves obviously flat, 1.5-6 mm wide); [collectively widespread]. |
9 Leaves filiform, terete or nearly so; stipules present, adnate to the leaf base and forming a sheath around the stem > 10 mm long. |
10 Stipule free at its tip, the sheathing portion not appearing inflated; flowers > 2, in an interrupted spike |
10 Stipule adnate its entire length to the leaf base, appearing inflated; flowers usually 2, on a flexous, elongate peduncle |
9 Leaves flat; stipules absent, or if present, either free or adnate to the leaf base and forming a sheath for < 10 mm. |
11 Leaves lacking a midvein; perianth parts 6, yellow |
11 Leaves with a midvein; perianth parts 0 or 4, variously colored (not yellow). |
12 Plants pubescent (at least on the upper stem); leaves pinnately veined; [Eudicots] |
12 Plants nearly or entirely glabrous; leaves with parallel venation; [Monocots]. |
13 Inflorescences of flowers solitary or in 2-4 flowered racemes, axillary; spathe lacking; perianth conspicuous with 3 pink to purple petals |
13 Inflorescence a spike, terminal or axillary; with or without a spathe; perianth lacking. |
14 Inflorescence a cylindrical, interrupted spike, lacking a spathe; leaves either parallel-margined or variously with a narrow blade differentiated from a petiole; [fresh to brackish waters] |
14 Inflorescence either a flattened spike sheathed by a spathe-like bract, or solitary; leaves parallel-margined, to 20 dm long; [ saline (marine) to brackish waters]. |
15 Leaves with a notched or tricuspidate apex; flowers solitary; [e. NC southward] |
15 Leaves with a rounded apex; flowers in a flattened spike sheathed by a spathe-like bract; [e. NC northward] |
