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Key to Araliaceae
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40656
2 Leaves simple, peltate or cordate, roundish (if lobed, with 3-5 rounded lobes), 0.3-10 cm wide; rhizomatous, creeping herbs; [subfamily Hydrocotyloideae] | |
2 Leaves either compound OR simple and palmately lobed and > 10 cm wide (the lobes 5-15 per leaf); herbs, shrubs, or trees. | |
5 Leaves 7-9-lobed (the lobes not sublobed); ovary 5- or 10-carpellate; leaf blades glabrous beneath at maturity | |
5 Leaves 9-15-lobed (some of the lobes sublobed); ovary 2-carpellate; leaf blades densely pubescent beneath at maturity | |
3 Leaves compound. | |
6 Leaves 2-3× compound, at least the final order of division pinnate; leaves either 1 from a subterranean stem or 2-many, alternate on an aboveground stem; inflorescence compound, consisting of (2-) 3-many umbels, either on a separate peduncle from the rhizome or in a terminal panicle or raceme of umbels; fruit purple or black; [subfamily Aralioideae; tribe Aralieae] | |
6 Leaves 1× palmately compound, leaflets 3-7; leaves 3-5 in a whorl at the summit of the stem (Panax) or many, clustered on spur shoots (Eleutherococcus); inflorescence of a single, simple umbel borne terminally on the stem; fruit red to yellow (Panax), purple or black (Eleutherococcus) or orange (Heptapleurum). | |
8 Plant a shrub (to 7 m tall), with prominent stem prickles; fruit black or dark purple when ripened; leaves either trifoliate (E. trifoliatus) or palmately compound and 5-foliolate (predominantly so in E. sieboldianus) | |
8 Plant a shrub (to 4 m tall in H. arboricola) or tree (to 12 m tall in H. actinophyllum), lacking stem prickles; fruit orange when ripened; leaves palmately compound, usually 7-9-foliolate (occasionally with 5 or 10 leaflets, if 5, this not predominant across the plant) | |
7 Plant native herbs, lacking prickles; fruit red or yellowish-green; [subfamily Aralioideae; tribe Aralieae]. | |
9 Leaflets 3 (-5), sessile or subsessile, the petiolules 0-3 mm long; larger leaflets 4-8 cm long, 0.5-2.5 cm wide, averaging about 2.5× as long as wide, the apex obtuse to acute; fruit yellow-green when ripe, longitudinally winged and ribbed in ×-section; petals white (rarely tinged with pink); inflorescence nodding in bud; underground storage organ a spherical tuber | |
9 Leaflets (3-) 5, petiolulate, the petiolules (7-) 10-25 mm long; larger leaflets 6-15 cm long, 3.5-7 cm wide, averaging about 1.8× as long as wide, the apex acuminate; fruit bright red when ripe, smoothly elliptical in ×-section; petals light green; inflorescence erect in bud; underground storage organ an elongate root, this vertical or horizontal, and sometimes branched |
Key to Panax
https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40661
1 Leaflets (3-) 5, petiolulate, the petiolules (7-) 10-25 mm long; larger leaflets 6-15 cm long, 3.5-7 cm wide, averaging about 1.8× as long as wide, the apex acuminate; fruit bright red when ripe, smoothly elliptical in ×-section; petals light green; inflorescence erect in bud; underground storage organ an elongate root, this vertical or horizontal, and sometimes branched | |
1 Leaflets 3 (-5), sessile or subsessile, the petiolules 0-3 mm long; larger leaflets 4-8 cm long, 0.5-2.5 cm wide, averaging about 2.5× as long as wide, the apex obtuse to acute; fruit yellow-green when ripe, longitudinally winged and ribbed in ×-section; petals white (rarely tinged with pink); inflorescence nodding in bud; underground storage organ a spherical tuber |
Key Q: herbaceous dicots with whorled leaves on the stem {add [Platycodon] CAMPANULACEAE}
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https://fsus.ncbg.unc.edu/main.php?pg=show-key.php&keyid=40743
4 Leaflets 3 (-5), sessile or subsessile, the petiolules 0-3 mm long; larger leaflets 4-8 cm long, 0.5-2.5 cm wide, averaging about 2.5× as long as wide, the apex obtuse to acute; fruit yellow-green when ripe, longitudinally winged and ribbed in ×-section; petals white (rarely tinged with pink); inflorescence nodding in bud; underground storage organ a spherical tuber | |
4 Leaflets (3-) 5, petiolulate, the petiolules (7-) 10-25 mm long; larger leaflets 6-15 cm long, 3.5-7 cm wide, averaging about 1.8× as long as wide, the apex acuminate; fruit bright red when ripe, smoothly elliptical in ×-section; petals light green; inflorescence erect in bud; underground storage organ an +/- elongate root, this vertical or horizontal, and sometimes branched | |
3 Inflorescence of single terminal flowers on the 1-several branches; fruit an aggregate of achenes; stem leaves 3 | |
5 Inflorescence an involucrate head subtended by phyllaries, heads solitary or many, variously arrayed in secondary inflorescences; fruit a cypsela | |
5 Inflorescence various, but not as above; fruit various, not as above (sometimes the flowers tightly grouped, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.). | |
6 Fruit a 3-lobed, 3-locular capsule; 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 | |
13 Inflorescence an axillary umbel; leaves narrowly linear and more than 10× as long as wide, > 20 mm long and < 2 mm wide; whorls of 3-6 leaves | |
18 Inflorescence of terminal involucrate clusters; perianth of 6 tepals; fruit an achene; stamens 9; [plants of very dry habitats] | |
21 Corolla pink-purple, 6-merous, the petals separate and borne on the edge of a hypanthium; stamens 8, 10, or 12; [plants of wetlands] | |
21 Corolla white, yellow, or greenish, 4-, 5-, or 7-merous, the petals fused at least basally into a tube (falling as a unit), not on a hypanthium; stamens 2, 4, 5, or 7; [plants of mesic habitats]. | |
23 Petals yellowish-white, with prominent green streaks; biennial or monocarpic plant, 10-30 dm tall when fertile; leaves 15-35 cm long | |
23 Petals white or yellow; perennial plants, 1-15 dm tall; leaves 1-15 cm long. | |