No key was found for the requested taxon, but its parent (Apocynaceae) is keyed as shown below.
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Key J3: lianas with opposite simple leaves with entire margins {add Paederia in RUBIACEAE}
Plantae
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Key J4: shrubs and subshrubs with opposite simple leaves with entire margins
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2 Leaves herbaceous or leathery (succulent in Borrichia), much wider than thick; [various habitats]. | |
4 Petals clawed, the bases noticeably thinned compared to the broader tips; fruit schizocarps, breaking into 2-3 nutlets or 1-seeded cocci; [in part, Aspicarpa and Galphimia] | |
4 Petals not clawed, of relatively similar width from base to tip; fruit various, but never schizocarps of 2-3 nutlets or 1-seeded cocci. | |
5 Well-developed leaves many per stem; inflorescence of individual flowers axillary in pairs or clusters or in terminal cymes. | |
9 Upright shrubs, unarmed. | |
11 Inflorescence a terminal head of many flowers. | |
12 Head flattened, either subtended by 4 large white bracts or by an involucre with >5 green phyllaries. | |
13 Head subtended by 4 large white bracts; leaves with prominently parallel-arcing secondary veins; flowers 4-merous | |
13 Head subtended by an involucre of >5 green phyllaries; leaves with venation otherwise; flowers 5-merous | |
11 Inflorescence otherwise (if terminal, the flowers not arranged in heads), either of a solitary flower, or one of a wide variety of inflorescences with flowers attached at different points along branched or unbranched axes (e.g. axillary). | |
16 Leaves not glandular-punctate and aromatic (only herbaceous Hypericum sometimes with black or transluscent leaf punctae, thus keyed instead in S1); flowers with 1-5 or 8-10 stamens; fruit not a berry, instead either a capsule (Hypericum), drupe (Cornus; Viburnum), follicle (APOCYNACEAE), or prominently ribbed and stipitate anthocarp (Pisonia). | |
14 Inflorescence either terminal, axillary or leaf-opposed, if terminal elongate (not flat-topped) or flowers solitary; if axillary then variously arranged (sometimes also solitary in the axils). | |
21 Carpels many (> 9), either separate or fused; stamens many; perianth segments either many and undifferentiated into calyx and corolla, maroon, brown, or yellow (in CALYCANTHACEAE), or differentiated into a fleshy and persistent calyx of 5-9 sepals, and a deciduous corolla of 5-9 red (or white) petals (Punica in LYTHRACEAE). | |
22 Fruit a leathery, 4-15 cm in diameter, reddish, spherical berry with obpyramidal seeds surrounded by a juicy sarcotesta (pomegranate); perianth differentiated, the sepals fleshy and persistent on the fruit, the petals deciduous, 5-9, bright red to white; ovary inferior; branches typically armed with axillary spines | |
21 Carpels 1-5 (-6), fused; stamens either 1-5 or 8-10 (except 10+ in MYRTACEAE); perianth segments 4-5 or 8, variously colored; fruit a simple capsule, drupe, or berry (including berry-like fruit); flowers 2-many, in axillary or terminal inflorescences OR sometimes solitary (MYRTACEAE, SANTALACEAE, and THESIACEAE); [Eudicots]. | |
24 Leaves conspicuously glandular-punctate and aromatic, evergreen and usually coriaceous; fruit a berry or apically-dehiscent capsule; flowers with abundant stamens and a cup-shaped hypanthium. | |
24 Leaves not both conspicuously glandular-punctate nor aromatic, membranous and deciduous; fruit a drupe or berry; flowers with 1-5 or 8-10 stamens, with or without a cup-shaped hypanthium. | |
23 Ovary superior (flowers hypogynous); corolla primarily radially symmetrical (zygomorphic in Citharexylum in VERBENACEAE and MALPIGHIACEAE; absent in Forestiera in OLEACEAE); fruit either a 1-4-seeded drupe, or a many-seeded berry (or berry-like fruit), or a capsule. | |
30 Petals not clawed, the width similar throughout; fruit a drupe or capsule; inflorescence axillary and terminal. | |
31 Fruit a loculicidal capsule, dehiscing into 3 valves; branches square in ×-section; leaves < 2 cm long; [exotic, cultivated and weakly established, of temperate areas] | |
32 Inflorescence a drooping axillary raceme (sometimes minutely so), flowers zygomorphic; fruit a drupe | |
32 Inflorescence various, if a raceme then not conspicuously drooping, flowers actinomorphic; fruit a drupe or capsule. | |
Key P1: herbaceous dicots with alternate, simple, and unlobed leaves on the stem
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1 Inflorescence an involucrate head subtended by phyllaries, the heads solitary or many and variously arrayed in secondary inflorescences, the ovary inferior, the corolla connate and tubular at least basally, the calyx absent, the stamens 5, the fruit a cypsela | |
1 Inflorescence, flower, and fruit structure various, but not with the combination of features as above (sometimes the flowers in a head, e.g. Eryngium in APIACEAE, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.). | |
3 Inflorescence a cyathium, consisting of a single pistillate flower (reduced to a single 3-carpellate pistil) and 2 or more staminate flowers (each reduced to 1 stamen), borne in a cup-like involucre, the involucre bearing pointed or rounded glands, these sometimes brightly colored and petaloid, mimicking an individual flower (the cyathia then secondarily arranged in terminal cymes, or solitary and axillary, etc.); fresh plants with milky juice; fruit a 3-lobed, 3-locular capsule | |
3 Inflorescence not a cyathium (and staminate or bisexual flowers with > 1 stamen; fresh plants lacking milky juice (except Stillingia in EUPHORBIACEAE); fruit various, not as above. | |
5 Leaf teeth rounded to subacute, resembling shallow lobes, irregular, few (mostly < 6 per leaf side). | |
6 Fruit a 3-lobed, circumscissilely dehiscent capsule; [plants native of rich moist shaded forests or exotics in suburban woodlands] | |
8 Flowers cyathia, not merely bearing showy tepals; leaf not variegated but sometimes bearing darkened red or black splotches; fruit capsules, but these not conspicuously winged; [natives and non-natives, usually not ornamental] | |
10 Style 1; inflorescence an axillary spikes with glomerules, or a terminal or axillary panicle; plant either with stinging hairs or not; [plant a rare exotic (Boehmeria nivea) or a native of moist forests (Boehmeria cylindrica, Laportea)] | |
11 Ovary inferior (flowers epigynous, the ovary sitting below the perianth and androecium) or half-inferior (perigynous, the ovary sitting level with the remaining floral parts). | |
15 Inflorescence a leaf-opposed spike or raceme, the inflorescence arising opposite of stem leaves (except Saururus, whose spikelike racemes are leaf-opposed and/or terminal); flowers visually white from white petaloid sepals, white bracts, or white stamens. | |
16 Sepals absent; carpels 3-4; stamens 2-6 (-8); fruit a capsule, a 1-seeded drupe, or a schizocarp of 3-4 mericarps; leaf bases cordate or subcordate; [Basal Angiosperms]. | |
15 Inflorescence not leaf opposed, instead arising with stem leaves (axillary) or terminal, the inflorescence not spikes nor racemes, instead either simpler (single axillary or glomerules of flowers) or more complexly branched (terminal or axilary panicles or terminal complex cymes); flowers white, reddish, scarious, or greenish. | |
27 Inflorescence not a dense, leaf-opposed spike, instead a terminal head or variously axillary or terminal (the flowers solitary or not, but not in a dense spike). | |
28 Flowers yellow; stamens numerous (15+), monomorphic or heteromorphic (inner and outer of differing length), conspicuously exerted from the flowers, often surpassing the ovary; leaves basally lobed or unlobed (often a mix in M. floridana and M. oligosperma) | |
28 Flowers blue or white; stamens fewer (usually < 10), monomorphic, if exerted, the ovary usually still apparent; leaves unlobed. | |
26 Petals distinct. | |
31 Petals 4-7; stamens 1× or 2× as many as the petals, 4-7, 8, 10, 12, or14; leaves herbaceous in texture | |
35 Stamens distinct. | |
34 Stamens 4-5, less than or the same as the number (5) of the petals; fruit a 2-5-carpellate capsule. | |
38 Pistil 5-carpellate; capsule 5-locular, explosively dehiscent; inflorescence of axillary, small clusters of flowers | |
38 Pistil 2-carpellate; capsule 2 locular, opening gradually or not at all; inflorescence a terminal spike, raceme or panicle (or solitary, axillary flowers in Chaenorrhinum in PLANTAGINACEAE and Krameria in KRAMERIACEAE). | |
40 Stamens 5; corolla not spurred; capsule septicidal; pubescence of the stem and leaves either gland-tipped or dendritically branched | |
40 Stamens 4; corolla with a distinct spur or sac at the base between the the 2 lower calyx lobes (except not spurred in Digitalis and Schwalbea); capsule loculicidal (only at the summit in Antirrhinum and Chaenorrhinum, and septicidal in Schwalbea); pubescence of the stem and leaves neither gland-tipped (except in Antirrhinum and Chaenorrhinum) nor dendritically branched. | |
32 Corolla radially symmetrical (actinomorphic), petals connate or distinct; fruit various (including capsules). | |
42 Plants herbaceous vines, fleshy and mucilaginous, the leaves variously orbicular, ovate, cordate or sometimes elliptic; fruit utricles (small sacs surrounding an achene), partly to completely enclosed in the persistent, dry to somewhat fleshy perianth; sepals 2 | |
42 Plants not herbaceous vines, the leaves variously shaped; fruit various, but never utricles; sepals 4 or more. | |
46 Fruit an aggregate of follicles; leaves fleshy in texture; inflorescence; leaves entire of sparsely and coarsely serrate, with < 12 points per leaf; [plants primarily of dry habitats] | |
51 Flowers 5-merous (the petals and sepals 5, stamens 5 or various multiples of 5); corolla white, yellow, reddish (including pinkish), or blue; fruit a loculicidal or septicidal capsule. | |
52 Stamens 5 ; corolla yellow or blue; capsule either 10-locular and septicidal (Linum) or 1-locular (with 3 carpels) and loculicidal. | |
53 Capsule 1-locular (with 3 carpels) and loculicidal (splitting along outer edges, not only at the top) | |
52 Stamens (4-) 10, 15, 20, 30 (-many); corolla white, pink, yellow, or reddish; capsule 2-, 3-, 5- (-10)-locular, loculicidal. | |
43 Petals fused (flowers sympetalous, this includes salverform and tubular flowers); stamens (4-) 5 (-7). | |
56 Plants herbaceous vines, fleshy and mucilaginous, the leaves variously orbicular, ovate, cordate or sometimes elliptic; fruit utricles (small sacs surrounding an achene), partly to completely enclosed in the persistent, dry to somewhat fleshy perianth; sepals 2 | |
56 Plants not with the above combination of characters, if herbaceous vines then fruit not utricles and sepals 4 or more. | |
57 Pistils 2, united only by the style and stigma; fruit a schizocarp of 2 follicles (often single by abortion); plant with milky juice when fresh; leaves entire; inflorescence an umbel | |
57 Pistil 1 (of 2 or 3 fused carpels); fruit a capsule, drupe, or a schizocarp splitting into 4 nutlets; plant lacking milky juice; leaves entire or serrate; inflorescence various (but not an umbel). | |
58 Ovary slightly to deeply 2-4-lobed (entire or shallowly lobed in Tiquilia and HELIOTROPIACEAE); fruit a schizocarp of 4 mericarps or a drupe; [BORAGINALES]. | |
60 Style gynobasic (originating from the base of the ovary's lobes); ovary slightly to deeply lobed; fruit a schizocarp of 4 mericarps | |
61 Plants usually strongly gray or white-colored and villous, growing in short, suffrutescent mounds or mats; leaves densely pubescent (hairs densely appressed adaxially, tomentose abaxially); inflorescence of solitary flowers or extra-axillary, never scirpioid; corolla lavender or whitish-lavender, the lobes 1.8-3.0 (-4.5) mm long, broadly rounded; [s. TX, westward; primarily of the Trans-Pecos region] | |
61 Plants variously glabrous or pubescent (sometimes villous), usually herbaceous, occasionally suffrutescent and mound or mat-forming; inflorescence variously elongate or racemose, often scirpioid (curved or coiled on one side of the inflorescence axis; e.g., Heliotropium), occasionally solitary (e.g., Euploca, in part; although in this case the leaves of the shrubby Euploca are significantly narrower); corolla variously colored (including lavender); [plants collectively widespread, including TX] | |
63 Plant an herb, erect or sprawling; leaves > 1.5 cm long. | |
66 Inflorescences (solitary or of several flowers) terminal on the stem. | |
67 Calyces not as above, flowers typically campanulate (not salverform), if tubular then not also 5-ribbed and capitate-glandular. | |
70 Flowers either solitary and obviously pedicelled, or several in an axillary or lateral inflorescence. | |
72 Calyces not as above, flowers typically campanulate (not salverform), if tubular then not also 5-ribbed and capitate-glandular. | |
73 Corolla lobes very short, much shorter than the corolla cup or tube, sometimes barely perceptible and represented only by teeth on the edge of the corolla limb, white, yellow, pink, various other colors (rarely including blue). | |
Key S1: herbaceous dicots with opposite, simple, and unlobed leaves on the stem
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1 Inflorescence an involucrate head subtended by phyllaries, the heads solitary or many and variously arrayed in secondary inflorescences, the ovary inferior, the corolla connate and tubular at least basally, the calyx absent, the stamens 5, the fruit a cypsela | |
1 Inflorescence, flower, and fruit structure various, but not with the combination of features as above (sometimes the flowers in a head, e.g. Pycnanthemum in LAMIACEAE, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.; Carpobrotus is superficially asteroid, but heads are composed of numerous petaloid staminodia, and receptacles lack cypselae;). | |
5 Leaves herbaceous, suborbicular, about as long as wide or wider than long; calyx 3- or 4-merous; stamens 4, 8, or 12. | |
8 Plants succulent, mat-forming subshrubs; flowering heads showy and consisting of numerous petaloid staminodia; [waif, FL] | |
15 Leaves serrate; corolla bilaterally symmetrical (especially the flowers near the outer edge of the head); inflorescence a head | |
18 Inflorescence a cyathium, consisting of a single pistillate flower (reduced to a single 3-carpellate pistil) and 2 or more staminate flowers (each reduced to 1 stamen), borne in a cup-like involucre, the involucre bearing pointed or rounded glands, these sometimes brightly colored and petaloid, mimicking an individual flower (the cyathia then secondarily arranged in terminal cymes, or solitary and axillary, etc.); fresh plants with milky juice; fruit a 3-lobed, 3-locular capsule | |
18 Inflorescence not a cyathium (and staminate or bisexual flowers with > 1 stamen, except Callitriche in PLANTAGINACEAE); fresh plants lacking milky juice; fruit various, not as above. | |
23 Leaves entire, or with a few very obscure crenations (Iresine) or basally disposed rounded lobe-like teeth (Atriplex); plants without stinging hairs. | |
32 Petals 4-7; sepals 4-7, normally monomorphic; stamens 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, or 12 (or sometimes rarely 2 or 3). | |
35 Corolla radially symmetrical (or so slightly bilaterally symmetrical as to be mistakable as radially symmetrical); stamens as many as the corolla lobes (or 1 less in Ruellia in ACANTHACEAE, Buchnera in OROBANCHACEAE, Trichostema in LAMIACEAE, and Verbena in VERBENACEAE); carpels 2 or 3. | |
36 Pistils 2, united only by the style and stigma; fruit a schizocarp of 2 1-carpellate follicles (often single by abortion); plant with milky juice when fresh (except Catharanthus); leaves entire | |
38 Sepals 5. | |
39 Inflorescence a terminal cyme; corolla salverform, with an elongated and very narrow tube, pink or white; capsule 3-locular | |
40 Stamens 4-12, the same number as the corolla lobes; corolla (and the flower as a whole) strictly radially symmetrical. | |
41 Capsule septicidal; corolla white, pink, blue, yellowish white, or greenish white; inflorescence either a terminal or axillary cyme, or a terminal panicle or raceme, or a terminal or axillary cyme reduced to 1 or a few flowers | |
41 Capsule loculicidal and also deeply 2-lobed; corolla white, pink, or scarlet with a yellow interior; inflorescence of cymosely arranged spikes | |
40 Stamens either 4, 1 fewer than the 5 corolla lobes, or 2 (with 2 staminodes); corolla usually slightly bilaterally symmetrical (the flower as a whole made bilaterally symmetrical by the 2 or 4 stamens). | |
43 Fruit a schizocarp of 4 1-seeded nutlets; inflorescence terminal, of cymes; corolla ca. 5 mm long; leaves prominently 3-veined | |
43 Fruit a capsule; inflorescence axillary, of cymes or clusters (often reduced to a solitary flower); corolla > 12 mm long; leaves with single primary vein | |
42 Leaves serrate; corolla salverform, the tube narrow and nearly the same diameter for most of its length; inflorescence a terminal spike, raceme, raceme of racemes, or head. | |
35 Corolla bilaterally symmetrical (or the corolla 2-lipped but the corolla lobes twisted so as to make the flower asymmetrical); fertile stamens fewer than the corolla lobes (except Plantago in PLANTAGINACEAE, which is equal, with 4 each; a few genera have a 5th, sterile, stamen which is obviously different in form than the 4 fertile stamens) (note that many corollas are bilabiate and the number of corolla lobes, 4 or 5, may be difficult to interpret); carpels 2. | |
45 Carpels 2, each carpel slightly to deeply lobed, separating at maturity into 4 half-carpellate units (not separating in Phyla in VERBENACEAE); fruit a schizocarp of 4 mericarps (or 2 nutlets in Phyla in VERBENACEAE). | |
46 Inflorescence a thyrse, verticillaster, or terminal cyme, the flowers borne in cymose lateral branches; corolla strongly bilaterally symmetrical (rarely nearly radially symmetrical); stems square in ×-section (or sometimes rounded, especially on older growth); fresh plants often (but not always) aromatic | |
46 Inflorescence of spikes, racemes, or heads, the flowers or fruits single at nodes; corolla often nearly radially symmetrical; stems rounded in X-section (rarely square); fresh plants usually not aromatic | |
47 Stamens 2. | |
48 Corolla 4-5-lobed, either strongly bilabiate or salverform (Pseuderanthemum in ACANTHACEAE); white, blue, or yellow. | |
50 Sepals 5, distinct or nearly so. | |
47 Stamens 4. | |
54 Flowers in terminal racemes, panicles, or spikes, the inflorescence not interspersed with large, leaf-like bracts. | |
56 Inflorescence a diffuse panicle; corolla 5-11 mm long, reddish-brown (sometimes with some yellow); fruit a septicidal capsule | |
56 Inflorescence of 1 or more terminal (and sometimes upper axillary) spikes or racemes; corolla 10-50 mm long (6-8 mm long in Phryma in PHRYMACEAE), white, pink, blue, purple, or yellow; fruit either a loculicidal capsule (OROBANCHACEAE) or a single seeded achene (Phryma in PHRYMACEAE). | |
57 Corolla 6-8 mm long, white to pale pink; fruit a 1-seeded achene contained in the accrescent calyx, this “lopping down” against the inflorescence axis | |
60 Leaves entire, either mostly larger or smaller [see below]; plant not blackening on drying | |
61 Leaves 3-30 cm long, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, > 2× as long as wide; plants erect or the stems sprawling; [plants mostly of uplands] | |
62 Corolla yellow, orange, or red. | |
63 Calyx lobes longer than the tube, or as long as the tube, corolla 25-50 mm long; plants usually blackening on drying | |
64 Corolla yellow, not narrowly cylindrical, the lower lip arched; plants not blackening on drying; [rare, in seepage wetlands] | |
62 Corolla white, pale blue, lavender, or pink (sometimes with some yellow). | |
65 Corolla white, blue, or combinations of blue and white (sometimes with some yellow markings); leaves broader, mostly lanceolate; plants not blackening on drying; corolla strongly bilabiate. | |