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Key F5: Key to Plantae

Plantae

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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
      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).
        5 Leaflets entire.
          6 Plant a liana, climbing by twining
          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 2-5 cm long, with 5-7 leaflets
                 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).
                     11 Inflorescence a panicle; fruit a drupe; [collectively widespread]
                       12 Plants with pellucid (translucent) gland dots (usually variously present across vegetative and flowering parts)
                       12 Plants lacking pellucid gland dots.
                          13 Carpels remaining united, forming a compound fruit (the fruits various)
                          13 Carpels becoming distinct, each forming a simple drupe
                     11 Inflorescence a raceme or compound thyrse; fruit a samara or 1-3-seeded berry; [s. FL]
        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
                            14 Leaflets serrate.
                                    18 Leaf serrations spinose
                                    18 Leaf serrations not spinose.
                                       19 Inflorescences axillary.
                                         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
                                       19 Inflorescences terminal.
                                           21 Inflorescence corymbose (flat-topped or rounded, as wide as long or wider); fruit a red pome
                                           21 Inflorescence paniculate (longer than wide); fruit various (see below), but not as above.
                                             22 Leaves stipulate; flowers bright white; fruit an aggregate of 5 follicles
                                             22 Leaves lacking stipules; flowers cream or yellow; fruit either a drupe or an inflated membranaceous capsule.
                                               23 Fruit a drupe
                                               23 Fruit an inflated membranaceous capsule