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1 Aerial and epiphytic, hemiparasitic shrub |
1 Terrestrial, autotrophic or hemiparasitic shrub or subshrub. |
..2 Leaves succulent, nearly as thick as wide; [brackish to saline situations] |
..2 Leaves herbaceous (succulent in Borrichia), much wider than thick; [various habitats]. |
....3 Creeping or short subshrubs, the stems primarily prostrate, < 2 dm tall. |
......4 Well-developed leaves 4-6 per stem; inflorescence a head subtended by 4 large white bracts |
......4 Well-developed leaves many per stem; inflorescence of individual flowers axillary in pairs or clusters or in terminal cymes. |
........5 Flowers yellow; leaves with pellucid or dark punctate glands (use at least 10× magnification) |
........5 Flowers white, pale pink, or deep pink; leaves lacking sessile, punctate glands. |
..........6 Leaves linear; flowers pale to deep pink, 5-merous |
..........6 Leaves orbicular or elliptic; flowers white to pale pink, 4-merous or 5-merous |
............ 7 Leaves elliptic; flowers 5-merous; fruit a brownish capsule |
............ 7 Leaves orbicular; flowers 4-merous; fruit a red berry |
....3 Upright or scrambling shrubs, > 3 dm tall |
............ ..8 Scrambling shrubs, armed with recurved paired spines at the nodes |
............ ..8 Upright shrubs, unarmed. |
............ ....9 Inflorescence a terminal head of many flowers. |
............ ......10 Head spherical, lacking an involucre of conspicuous bracts or phyllaries |
............ ......10 Head flattened, either subtended by 4 large white bracts or by an involucre with >5 green phyllaries. |
............ ........11 Head subtended by 4 large white bracts; leaves with prominently parallel-arcing secondary veins; flowers 4-merous |
............ ........11 Head subtended by an involucre of >5 green phyllaries; leaves with venation otherwise; flowers 5-merous |
............ ....9 Inflorescence otherwise, 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). {add: [ Lagerstroemia] LYTHRACEAE; [ Rosmarinus] LAMIACEAE; [ Laguncularia] COMBRETACEAE; [ Buxus] BUXACEAE; [ Exochorda] ROSACEAE; various other [see spreadsheet]} |
............ ..........12 Inflorescence flat-topped (broader than long), terminal, a compound cyme or corymb. |
............ ............ 13 Flowers bright yellow; stamens many; leaves < 1.5 cm wide; fruit a capsule; leaves with pellucid or dark punctate glands (use at least 10× magnification) |
............ ............ 13 Flowers white or creamy; stamens 4-5; leaves > 1.5 cm wide; fruit a drupe; leaves lacking sessile, punctate glands. |
............ ............ ..14 Petals 5; foliage with simple hairs |
............ ............ ..14 Petals 4; foliage with T-shaped hairs |
............ ..........12 Inflorescence either terminal and not flat-topped (longer than wide), or axillary and variously shaped, or terminal and solitary, or leaf-opposed. |
............ ............ ....15 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). |
............ ............ ......16 Fruit a wrinkled, 3-7 cm long, brown to black, elliptical aggregate of nearly spherical, large achenes; flowers solitary in axils; perianth segments many and undifferentiated into calyx and corolla, maroon, brown, or yellowish; ovary superior; branches unarmed |
............ ............ ......16 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 |
............ ............ ....15 Carpels 1-5, fused; stamens either 1-5 or 8-10; 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 (pistillate flowers sometimes solitary in SANTALACEAE and THESIACEAE); [Eudicots]. |
............ ............ ........17 Ovary inferior; corolla absent, radially symmetrical, or bilaterally symmetrical; fruit either a berry or a 1-seeded drupe. |
............ ............ ..........18 Flowers unisexual and plants dioecious; corolla absent; pistillate flowers solitary, staminate flowers in pedunculate umbels or cymes, either terminal or axillary; fruit a 1-seeded drupe; leaves acute to acuminate at the apex |
............ ............ ............ 19 Inflorescences terminal |
............ ............ ............ 19 Inflorescences axillary |
............ ............ ..........18 Flowers bisexual and plants hermaphroditic; corolla present; flowers paired, terminal or axillary, or in axillary spikes; fruit a berry; leaves rounded, obtuse, to acute (or acuminate in Lonicera maackii) at the apex |
............ ............ ........17 Ovary superior; corolla radially symmetrical (absent in Forestiera in OLEACEAE); fruit either a 1-4-seeded drupe, or a many-seeded berry (or berry-like fruit), or a capsule. |
............ ............ ............ ..20 Leaves with a conspicuous mix of silvery stellate hairs (upper) and rusty colored scales (lower); ovaries bearing rusty colored scales; flowers small, yellowish and inconspicuous; [nw. PA northward] |
............ ............ ............ ..20 Leaves glabrous or nearly so, lacking a conspicuous mix of stellate hairs adaxially and rusty scales abaxially; ovaries not bearing rusty colored scales; flowers of various size and color. |
............ ............ ............ ....21 Stamens 8-10, of 2 different lengths in each flower; petals separate, 4-5 (-7), pink purple, 10-15 mm long; stems strongly arching, rooting at the tips; [plants of flooded to saturated wetlands] |
............ ............ ............ ....21 Stamens either (1-) 2 (-4), or 4-5, or 10, all of the same length; petals fused (separate in RHAMNACEAE and BUXACEAE, but then < 5 mm long and white or cream), white, bright-yellow, lilac, or pink; stems erect (or at least not arching and rooting at the tips); [plants of various habitats]. |
............ ............ ............ ......22 Petals separate, 4-5, white or cream; stamens 4-5. |
............ ............ ............ ........23 Fruit a loculicidal capsule, dehiscing into 3 valves; branches square in ×-section; leaves < 2 cm long; [exotic, cultivated and weakly established, of temperate areas] |
............ ............ ............ ........23 Fruit a drupe with 2-4 pyrenes; branches round or nearly so in ×-section; leaves > 2 cm long; [natives, of peninsular FL] |
............ ............ ............ ......22 Petals fused, 4-5, white, bright yellow, lilac, or pink; stamens either (1-) 2 (-4) or 10; fruit either a capsule or a 1-seeded drupe. |
............ ............ ............ ..........24 Perianth 5-merous; corolla pink; stamens 10; fruit a 5-locular capsule |
............ ............ ............ ..........24 Perianth 4-merous; corolla white, bright yellow, or lilac; stamens (1-) 2 (-4); fruit either a 1-seeded drupe or a 2-locular capsule |
1 Leaves deciduous (medium to pale green, thin in texture); leaves strictly opposite. |
..2 Leaves 10-70 cm wide, cordate or subcordate at the base; flowers 5-merous, bilaterally symmetrical, large (20-70 mm long), the petals connate into a tube; fruit a capsule. |
....3 Flowers white to yellow; capsules linear, >10× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with curly simple hairs; nectar glands present in the main vein axils on the undersurface of the leaf (visible from the underside or the upperside in fresh leaves and herbarium specimens as a triangle 1-4 mm on a side) |
....3 Flowers lavender; capsules ellipsoid, < 2× as long as wide; leaf undersurface with branched (dendritic or stellate) hairs; nectar glands absent |
..2 Leaves 1-12 cm wide, cuneate to rounded at the base; flowers 4-6-merous, radially symmetrical, small to medium (< 25 mm long), the petals either connate into a tube or separate and clawed; fruit a drupe or capsule. |
......4 Leaves with prominently parallel-arcing secondary veins; corolla 4-merous, < 8 mm long, white to cream; inflorescence a many-flowered corymb or head; flowers white to cream; fruit a drupe |
......4 Leaves with complexly branching secondary and tertiary veins; corolla 5-6-merous, 12-25 mm long, either greenish-yellow and mottled with purple, or white, pink, or purple; inflorescence a few-flowered cyme or many-flowered cymose panicle; fruit a capsule. |
........5 Leaves 4-20 cm long, 2.5-12 cm wide; petals connate into a 15-25 mm long tube, either greenish-yellow and mottled with purple; some calyx lobes expanding to 7 cm long and 5 cm wide, petaloid (pink to yellowish); capsule 2-valved; [native, in saturated, boggy seepages and streamheads, se. SC to FL] |
........5 Leaves 2.5-7 cm long, 1.5-4 cm wide; petals separate, clawed, 12-20 mm long (including the 6-9 mm long claw), white, pink, or purple; calyx remaining small and sepaloid (3.5-5 mm long); capsule 4-6-valved; [introduced, persistent from planting in upland to moist situations] |
1 Leaves evergreen (dark green or gray-green, thick in texture); leaves opposite or subopposite (offset by < 2mm from the opposing leaf). |
..........6 Mangroves, with one of various adaptations to growing in tidal or near-tidal, saline situations: prominent salt-excreting glands on the petiole ( Laguncularia in COMBRETACEAE), or prop roots ( Rhizophora in RHIZOPHORACEAE), or abundant pneumatophores ( Avicennia in ACANTHACEAE); [FL and less commonly subtropical shores of other, especially Gulf Coast, southeastern states]. |
............ 7 Leaves broadly elliptic, light green on both surfaces, rounded to broadly cuneate at the base, rounded and often retuse at the tip; petiole with 2 prominent salt-excreting glands; plants with neither prop-roots from the trunk and branches, nor pneumatophores from the roots |
............ 7 Leaves narrowly elliptic, dark green above, cuneate at the base, acute to obtuse at the tip; petiole without salt glands; plants with either prop-roots from the trunk and branches, or pneumatophores from the roots. |
............ ..8 Plants with numerous pneumatophores ascending from the roots and terminating in a blunt tip; leaves gray on the undersurface |
............ ..8 Plants with prominent prop-roots descending to the ground from the trunk and branches; leaves light green on the undersurface |
..........6 Non-mangroves; [collectively widespread]. |
............ ....9 Secondary leaf veins relatively few, further branching and reticulating into the tertiary vein structure; [collectively widespread]. |
............ ......10 Leaves strictly opposite, blue- or gray-green on both surfaces, suborbicular (about as wide as long), strongly aromatic when fresh |
............ ......10 Leaves opposite or subopposite (offset by < 2mm from the opposing leaf); dark green above, pale green below; oblancolate, elliptic, or ovate (distinctly longer than wide), not aromatic when fresh |
............ ........11 Twigs with spines; leaf venation with 3 primary veins from near the blade base; fruit a spherical berry, 5-12 cm long |
............ ........11 Twigs lacking spines; leaf venation pinnate; fruit an elliptical drupe, < 2.5 cm long |
............ ....9 Secondary leaf veins very many, closely parallel to one another and extending unbranched to the leaf margin. |
............ ..........12 Leaves elliptic, widest near the midpoint of the blade, ca. 2× as long as wide; flowers in axillary thyrses; fruit a 1-seeded drupe, 2-4 cm long |
............ ..........12 Leaves spatulate, widest towards the broadly rounded tip, ca. 1.2-1.6× as long as wide; flowers terminal on the branches, 1-3; fruit a leathery capsule, (4-) 6-9 (-12)-valved, 5-8 cm long |