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Vascular Plants of California
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Philadelphus
MOCK ORANGE

Higher Taxonomy
Family: HydrangeaceaeView DescriptionDichotomous Key

Common Name: HYDRANGEA FAMILY
Habit: Perennial herb to small tree or vine. Stem: < 3 m, generally erect; bark generally peeling as thin sheets or narrow strips. Leaf: generally simple, opposite, deciduous or not, +- hairy; stipules 0; blade +- round to narrowly elliptic, entire or toothed. Inflorescence: cyme, raceme, panicle, or flower 1, terminal or axillary, generally bracted. Flower: bisexual, radial, flowers on inflorescence margins occasionally sterile and enlarged; sepals 4--10, free or fused at base, spreading or erect; petals 4--7, free, +- round to narrowly elliptic; stamens 8--12 in 2 whorls or many and clustered, filament base linear or wide and flat; pistil 1, ovary superior to inferior, chambers 2--8, ovules 1--2 or many per chamber, placentas axile or parietal, styles 1--8, free or fused at base. Fruit: capsule, loculicidal or septicidal; styles persistent or not. Seed: generally many, small to minute, oblong to fusiform, winged or not.
Genera In Family: 18 genera, +- 250 species: generally temperate, subtropical northern hemisphere; some cultivated for ornament (Carpenteria, Hydrangea, Philadelphus). Note: Philadelphaceae in TJM (1993).
eFlora Treatment Author: Robert E. Preston & Charles F. Quibell
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.
Philadelphus
Habit: Shrub < 3 m. Stem: bark red-brown, aging gray, peeling as narrow rectangles or strips; twigs glabrous to hairy. Leaf: deciduous, petioled; blade 3-veined from base, +- glabrous to hairy, margin entire to toothed. Inflorescence: flower 1, or raceme to panicle, terminal, +- open. Flower: fragrant; sepals 4--5, glabrous to hairy; petals 4--5, white; stamens generally many, clustered, filaments linear, fused at base; ovary 1/2 to completely inferior, chambers 4--5, placentas axile, ovules many, style 1, branches generally 4, stigmas linear along style branches. Fruit: becoming woody, generally loculicidal. Seed: many, generally fusiform, generally brown.
Species In Genus: +- 65 species: temperate America, Eurasia. Etymology: (Greek: for Ptolemy Philadelphus, Greek king of Egypt, 309--247 BC) Note: Many intergrading infraspecific taxa described; more study needed to determine which warrant recognition.
Jepson eFlora Author: Robert E. Preston & Charles F. Quibell
Reference: Frazier 1999 New Mexico Botanist 13:1--6
Unabridged Reference: Hitchcock 1943 Madroño 7:35--56; Hu 1956 J Arnold Arbor 37:15--90
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
Key to Philadelphus

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Citation for this treatment: Robert E. Preston & Charles F. Quibell 2012, Philadelphus, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=9631, accessed on April 19, 2024.

Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 19, 2024.