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Jepson eFlora Family Key to Group 11

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Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) . Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/ [accessed on ]


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Group 11: Shrubs or trees; perianth in one whorl or absent; flowers unisexual; staminate flowers in catkins or catkin-like spikes; pistillate flowers with 1 pistil


1. Plant parasitic on stem of woody host plant ..... VISCACEAE {G6,7,8,9,12,14}

1' Plant free-living, rooted in ground

2. Leaves fleshy, scale-like or  to oblanceolate;  

3. Leaves scale-like; distal stems ± fleshy, jointed ..... CHENOPODIACEAE (2) {G6,7,8,9,15}

3' Leaves  to oblanceolate, ± distal stems not jointed ..... SARCOBATACEAE {G7,9}

2' Leaves non-fleshy, ± thin to leathery, with well-developed flat blades, generally wider;   to drooping

4. Leaves  ..... GARRYACEAE {G7,9}

4' Leaves 

5. Leaf compound

6. Plants dioeciousevergreenstaminate catkin-like inflorescence branched — inflorescence resembles  when young, but is actually a branched  ..... ANACARDIACEAE (Pistacia) {G7,12}

6' Plants monoeciousdeciduousstaminate  unbranched ..... JUGLANDACEAE {G7,9}

5' Leaf 

7. Fruit capsuleseeds 3–many

8. Ovary 3-lobed; seeds 3, without a tuft of hairsstems brittle ..... EUPHORBIACEAE (Acalypha) {G7,9}

8' Ovary unlobed; seeds several–many, each with a tuft of hairsstems not brittle ..... SALICACEAE {G7,9}

7' Fruit dry or fleshyseed generally 1

9. Shrubs of ± saline desert habitatsleaves densely stellate-hairy or scaly-puberulent and ± glabrous in age ..... CHENOPODIACEAE (2) {G6,7,8,9,15}

9' Shrubs or trees, generally of moister habitatsleaves glabrous or variously hairy

10. Milky latex present; sepals of pistillate inflorescence enlarged and fleshy in fruit, ripening together with the ovaries as a spheric to ellipsoid or ovoid multiple fruit ..... MORACEAE {G7,12}

10' Milky latex 0; sepals 0 or if present, not becoming fleshyovaries ripening as individual drupesnuts, or winged achenes

11. Leaf  dotted with minute, bead-like,  resin glands, aromatic; stipules 0; staminate  short, densely flowered; sepals 0; fruit, wax-coated drupefree of subtending bracts or an  enclosed between a pair of spongy bractlets ..... MYRICACEAE {G7,9}

11' Leaf  not dotted with minute, bead-like resin glands (except in some Betulaceae), generally not aromatic; stipules formed but generally early-deciduous; staminate  elongated, either ± flexible and drooping or stiff and spike-like; sepals present in staminate catkins (except Corylus in Betulaceae); fruitnut or winged 

12. Fruits many, small, flattened, winged achenes, clustered in a cone-like fruit ; plant deciduouspistillate flower calyx 0 ..... BETULACEAE {G7,9}

12' Fruits 1–3, each a well-developed nut, subtended or surrounded by a husk-, cup-, or spiny, bur-like ; plant deciduous or evergreenpistillate flower calyx fused to ovarysepal tips surrounding style base

13. Fruitnut enclosed in a tubular, husk-like ; involucral bractlets 2, papery; staminate  drooping, densely flowered, bractlets ± concealing flowers, sepals 0; deciduous shrub ..... BETULACEAE (Corylus)

13' Fruitnut in a scaly cup-like  or 1–3 nuts enclosed in a spiny, bur-like involucre; involucral bractlets many, scaly or spiny; staminate  very slender and drooping or stiff and spike-like, bractlets inconspicuous, sepals present; deciduous or evergreen tree or shrub ..... FAGACEAE {G7,9}

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