No key was found for the requested taxon, but it is the only child of Croton. Showing where it is keyed below.
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Key to Euphorbiaceae
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40078
2 Shrub or tree (woody). | |
3 Leaves entire. | |
6 Leaf blades 1-1.5× as long as wide; [exotic trees]. | |
6 Leaf blades 1.5-5× as long as wide; native or exotic shrubs or, rarely, small trees. | |
8 Leaves not variegated; [widespread native and non-natives] | |
11 Leaves palmately veined at base; inflorescence bracts not subtended by glands; [s. TX and southwards]; [subfamily Acalyphoideae] | |
11 Leaves pinnately veined; inflorescence bracts with 2 subtending glands; [widespread from NC to FL west to AR and e. TX]; [subfamily Euphorbioideae] | |
13 Leaves palmately lobed, margins entire, crenate, or serrate (Mallotus often with at least a few obscurely lobed leaves). | |
14 Petals absent; inflorescence a panicle; leaf lobe margins crenate to serrate; [subfamily Acalyphoideae]. | |
15 Plants glabrous, the leaves conspicuously 7-12 palmately lobed, appearing almost star-shaped; [widespread non-native] | |
21 Leaves palmately deeply divided into 3-many lobes. | |
![]() Show caption*© Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Alexis López Hernández | |
24 Plant lacking stinging trichomes; stamens separate. | |
26 Plants glabrous or hairy with simple or 2-branched hairs. | |
27 Plants glabrous or hairy with simple hairs. | |
30 Flowers in terminal spikes; stout perennial with several to many stems arising from a subterranean crown; [subfamily Euphorbioideae] | |
30 Flowers strictly axillary or both axillary and terminal, in small clusters, racemes, or spikes; finer perennial or annual, not typically with > 1 stem arising from a subterranean crown; [subfamily Acalyphoideae] | |
31 Leaves alternate; carpels 3 (sometimes fewer by abortion). | |
Key G4: shrubs and subshrubs with alternate, simple, unlobed, entire leaves
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3 Leaves broader, < 15× as long as wide, leaf apices variously shaped, if pointed usually not conspicuously sharpened; [Eudicots, Basal Angiosperms, or Monocots]. | |
5 Inflorescence an involucrate head or a raceme or a panicle consisting of spherical heads (Conocarpus in COMBRETACEAE). | |
6 Inflorescence an involucrate head, the heads consisting of a receptacle bearing few-many cypselae; plants of various habitats, but not forming dense stands of shrubs in coastal habitats | |
5 Inflorescence not an involucrate head, instead either solitary (Illicium in ILLICIACEAE) or variously branched, spicate, racemose, umbellate, or fascicled. | |
8 Leaves alternate, but usually clustered densely towards branch tips; leaves narrowly oblanceolate, 1-4 cm long; flowers yellow, 5-merous, the petals diminuitive (ca. 4 mm) and clawed basally (the petals often falling off by midday); [of coastal beaches, dunes, and hammocks; FL peninsula] | |
8 Plants not with the above combination of traits: leaves longer and variously shaped (if narrowly oblanceolate, leaves much longer than 40 cm long) usually well-spaced throughout the stems (if clustered, then other characters lacking); [plants widely distributed in a variety of habitats]. | |
12 Leaves largely covered with silver and/or bronze lepidote scales and/or dense stellate hairs below (visible at 10× or higher magnification), giving the lower leaf surface a slightly shiny to almost metallic appearance. {add Lyonia ferruginea and L. fruticosa in ERICACEAE; add Loropetalum in HAMAMELIDACEAE} | |
16 Flowers in spikes, axillary umbels (of shortened spikes), or the flowers solitary and leaf-opposing; leaves spaced, the bases oblique; stipules apparent, and clasping the stem; fruit rarely 3-angled (P. auritum), but not ridged; plants unarmed, the stems swollen at the nodes; branches somewhat zig-zagged, not arranged in conspicuous tiers | |
16 Flowers arranged in axillary spikes only; the fruit usually somewhat ridged; leaves clustered at branch tips (except T. arjuna), the bases typically cuneate; stipules reduced to glandular hairs at petiole base; plants armed or unarmed, the stem nodes not conspicuously swollen; branches arranged in tiers, the main branches erect, the lateral spreading horizontally | |
15 Flowers in other types of inflorescences, not spikes, if the inflorescence axillary only, then consisting of panicles or racemes (Cestrum) or subsessile to sessile fascicles (Myrsine and SAPOTACEAE); fruit various (acorns, berries, drupes, capsules, legumes). | |
17 Leaves 1-foliolate on the upper stems, sometimes 3-foliolate below, or all reduced to phyllodial spines; flowers papilionaceous, bright yellow; fruit a legume; stems bright green | |
17 Leaves simple throughout; flowers variously shaped but not papilionaceous; fruit not a legume, instead acorns, berries, capsules, or drupes. | |
18 Flowers apetalous; arranged in catkins (Quercus in FAGACEAE; Morella inodora in MYRICACEAE) OR thyrses (Dodonaea in SAPINDACEAE). | |
18 Flowers not apetalous, with a well-developed corolla, variously colored (white, cream, pink, greenish or reddish-orange), either urceolate OR tubular and with separate and spreading petals (rarely the perianth only consisting of green sepals), arranged in various terminal or axillary inflorescences, or sometimes solitary; fruit either a (3-) 5-valved capsule, or a spherical berry with (1-) 10+ seeds, OR a 1-8 seeded dry or fleshy drupe. | |
21 Flowers white to pink or reddish-orange, rotate, tubular, or urceolate (the petals also sometimes spreading apically, but united at least basally), in various terminal or axillary inflorescences or solitary; fruit either a 2-5 valved capsule (conspicuously linear-cylindric in CAPPARACEAE), a spherical berry with 10+ seeds OR a drupe bearing 4 bony nutlets (Bourreria). | |
23 Fruit a fleshy berry; inflorescences of axillary fascicles (SAPOTACEAE), axillary and paniculate (Cestrum) or in Solanum, leaf-opposed and variously arranged (terminal, axillary, and extra-axillary). | |
26 Leaves 1 per node or also paired (on one side of the stem) at some nodes (the leaves then uneven in size); inflorescences leaf-opposed; flowers campanulate, lacking a tubular corolla | |
23 Fruit not a fleshy berry, instead a valved capsule or a drupe bearing 4 bony nutlets (Bourreria); inflorescences terminal or axillary (or occasionally flowers solitary), never leaf-opposed. | |
27 Capsules pendulous and conspicuously elongate-cylindric, borne on a slender gynophore (a specialized stipe bearing the gynoecium); seeds white, grey, tan, or brownish in color and usually contrasting with the bright red interior of the capsules; plants shrubs or sometimes loosely scrambling over other plants; stamens usually much longer than the petals and conspicuously exerted from the flowers | |
27 Capsules (or drupes) erect, not linear nor long-cylindric, not borne on a gynophore; seeds variously colored, and sometimes surrounded by a fleshy aril (but the entire capsule interior not bright red); plants shrubs; stamens shorter than or only minimally longer than the corolla (not long exerted) | |
29 Fruit a capsule (the seeds with fleshy arils or attachments); flowers rotate, but not salverform (the corolla tube not lengthened), arranged solitary, few, or in cymes, terminal or axillary, the corolla lobes usually deltoid or somewhat triangular in shape; leaves glabrous or sometimes puberulent (Pittosporum), but the pubescence not rough. | |
30 Flowers few, not showy, green to greenish-white, inflorescence not densely arranged (flowers also sometimes solitary); capsules not beaked; leaves not revolute or undulate | |
30 Flowers numerous, showy, white; inflorescence densely arranged; capsules with short beak; leaf margins revolute or slightly undulate | |
21 Flowers white, rotate, the petals spreading, distinct (i.e., separate to the base; nearly so in Myrsine), not tubular; arranged in axillary fascicles or racemes or in subsessile to sessile axillary fascicles (Myrsine); fruit either a fleshy drupe with 4-8 pyrenes, or a dry to leathery single-seeded drupe. | |
33 Inflorescence an axillary fascicle or cluster, the fascicles short-pedicellate, subsessile, or sessile | |
34 Inflorescence of subsessile or short-pedicellate fascicles, the flowers 4-merous, white (lacking pink streaks or dots); fruit a fleshy drupe with 4-8 pyrenes | |
1 Leaves deciduous. | |
35 Inflorescence branched, spicate, a catkin, or consisting of a solitary flower or axillary clusters or whorls, not an involucrate head. | |
![]() Show caption*© Alan Cressler: Leitneria floridana (male catkin), St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, St. Marks Unit, Wakulla County, Florida 1 by Alan Cressler | |
38 Inflorescences consisting of solitary, axillary flowers | |
38 Inflorescence of 2 or more flowers; perianth 3-5-merous; fresh plants not musky-fragrant; fruits various, not as above. | |
40 Flowers 3-merous; fruit fleshy, red or greenish-yellow at maturity; ovary superior; [Basal Angiosperms or Eudicots]. | |
42 Fruit either a drupe or berry (indehiscent, and variously fleshy or dry) or a dry 3-valved capsule with 1 seed; inflorescence axillary (solitary, clusters, fascicles, or racemes), or in a terminal raceme (Pyrularia in SANTALACEAE). | |
43 Leaves with various vestiture, but not as above. | |
44 Ovary inferior or half-inferior; inflorescence an axillary cluster or raceme, or a terminal raceme. | |
45 Fruit an elongate drupe (definitely longer than thick), with 1 seed. | |
47 Fruits spherical, < 10 mm long. | |
49 Inflorescence a narrowly cylindrical raceme, clustered several to many at the tip of the previous year’s wood and below the current season’s growth; fruit < 3 mm in diameter | |
50 Fruit fleshy, with 4-8 seeds; leaf pubescence simple or absent. | |
51 Fruit yellow to red, the pedicel 10-30 mm long; leaf venation pinnate, but irregular and reticulated | |
51 Fruit dark red to black, the pedicel < 10 mm long; leaf venation very neatly pinnate, with the secondary veins nearly straight and parallel to one another |
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.). | |
2 Perianth uniseriate (represented only by undifferentiated tepals or sepals; look at the front and back of the flowers for two layers) or completely absent; flowers usually unisexual, less commonly bisexual). | |
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. | |
8 Flowers typically with 2 or 4 (-5) showy, white-colored tepals; leaves sometimes variegated; fruit unequally or subequally 3-winged capsules; [ornamental waifs or uncommon non-natives] | |
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] | |
7 Leaf bases cordate to rounded. | |
9 Styles 3; fruit a 3-lobed, 3-carpellate capsule (1 carpel sometimes aborting); inflorescence either a terminal or leaf opposed raceme, or a dense axillary condensed cyme with conspicuous toothed bracts subtending the flowers | |
4 Leaf margins entire. | |
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). | |
12 Leaf base cuneate, rounded, or truncate; calyx of 3-4-5 distinct sepals, radially symmetrical, white or yellow; fruit a dry, nutlike drupe or an achene. | |
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. | |
22 Sepals not petaloid, inconspicuous, green or greyish in color; plants prostrate or erect, annual or perennial; leaves alternate OR either alternate or opposite (Amaranthaceae); achenes variously textured (smooth or textured, sometimes reticulate or verrucose, but rarely muricate). | |
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. | |
31 Petals 4-7; stamens 1× or 2× as many as the petals, 4-7, 8, 10, 12, or14; leaves herbaceous in texture | |
33 Petals connate (at least basally), 4, 5, 6, 7, or 8; carpels 1, 2, 4, 5, or 6 (rarely 3 in Reseda in RESEDACEAE); fruit a legume or 1-, 2-, or 5-loculed capsule (except a 1-seeded indehiscent pod in Krameria in KRAMERIACEAE). | |
34 Stamens 6-10 (-25), more than the number (4 or 5) of petals and the number (4 or 5) of the sepals; fruit a legume or a 1-6-carpellate capsule. | |
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. | |
43 Petals distinct (flowers apopetalous); stamens 5-many (4 or 5 in Capraria). | |
44 Pistils 4-10 (each 1-carpellate) in a ring, these sometimes fused basally, each with its own style/stigma; fruit either an aggregate of achenes or follicles or a 5 (-7) locular capsule. | |
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] | |
48 Petals 5 (rarely 4 or 6); sepals 5 (rarely 4 or 6); stamens 4, 5 (or multiples of 5), 6, or 12; fruit a capsule or a ring of mericarps. | |
51 Flowers 6-merous (the petals and sepals 6, the stamens 6 or 12); corolla pink or purplish (rarely white); fruit a septicidal capsule | |
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. | |
67 Calyces not as above, flowers typically campanulate (not salverform), if tubular then not also 5-ribbed and capitate-glandular. | |
70 Flowers sessile or very-short pedicelled, solitary in the leaf axils. | |
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. | |