Overview
A bumblebee (or bumble bee) is any member of the genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere.
Bumblebees are social insects that are characterized by black and yellow body hairs, often in bands. However, some species have orange or red on their bodies, or may be entirely black.1] Another obvious (but not unique) characteristic is the soft nature of the hair (long, branched setae), called pile, that covers their entire body, making them appear and feel fuzzy. They are best distinguished from similarly large, fuzzy bees by the form of the female hind leg, which is modified to form a corbicula; a shiny concave surface that is bare, but surrounded by a fringe of hairs used to transport pollen (in similar bees, the hind leg is completely hairy, and pollen grains are wedged into the hairs for transport).
Like their relatives the honey bees, bumblebees feed on nectar and gather pollen to feed their young.
Biology
The blood or hemolymph, as in other arthropods, is carried in an open circulatory system. The body organs, "heart" (dorsal aorta), muscles, etc. are surrounded in a reservoir of blood. The dorsal aorta does pulse blood through its long tube, though, so there is a circulation of sorts.
In fertilised queens the ovaries are activated when the queen lays her egg. It passes along the oviduct to the vagina. In the vagina there is a container called the spermatheca. This is where the queen stores sperm from her mating. Before she lays the egg, she will decide whether to use sperm from the spermatheca to fertilise it or not. Non-fertilised eggs grow into males, and only fertilised eggs grow into females and queens.
As in a ll animals, hormones play a big role in the growth and development of the bumblebee. The hormones that stimulate the development of the ovaries are suppressed in the other female worker bees while the queen remains dominant. Salivary glands in the head secrete saliva which is mixed with the nectar and pollen. Saliva is also mixed into the nest materials to soften them. The fat body is a nutritional store; before hibernation, queens eat as much as they can to enlarge their fat body, and the fat in the cells is used up during hibernation.
Like all bee tongues, the bumblebee tongue (the proboscis) is composed of many different mouthparts acting as a unit, specialised to suck up nectar via capillary action. When at rest or flying, the proboscis is kept folded under the head. The abdomen is divided into dorsal tergites and ventral sternites. Wax is secreted from glands on the sternites.
The brightly-colored pile of the bumble bee is a form of aposematic signal. Depending on the species and morph, these colors can range from entirely black, to bright yellow, red, orange, white, and pink. Thick pile can also act as insulation to keep the bee warm in cold weather. Further, when flying a bee builds up an electrostatic charge, and as flowers are usually well grounded, pollen is attracted to the bee's pile when it lands. When a pollen covered bee enters a flower, the charged pollen is preferentially attracted to the stigma because it is better grounded than the other parts of the flower.
A bumblebee does not have ears, and it is not known whether, or how, a bumblebee could hear sound waves passing through the air, however they can feel the vibrations of sounds through wood and other materials.
Habitat
Bumblebees are typically found in higher latitudes and/or high altitudes, though exceptions exist (there are a few lowland tropical species).[2] A few species (Bombus polaris and B. alpinus) range into very cold climates where other bees might not be found; B. polaris can be found in northern Ellesmere Island - the northernmost occurrence of any eusocial insect - along with its parasite, B. hyperboreus.[3] One reason for this is that bumblebees can regulate their body temperature, via solar radiation, internal mechanisms of "shivering" and radiative cooling from the abdomen (called heterothermy). Other bees have similar physiology, but the mechanisms have been best studied in bumblebees.[4]
Nests
Bumblebees form colonies. These colonies are usually much less extensive than those of honey bees. This is due to a number of factors including: the small physical size of the nest cavity, a single female is responsible for the initial construction and reproduction that happens within the nest, and the restriction of the colony to a single season (in most species). Often, mature bumblebee nests will hold fewer than 50 individuals. Bumblebee nests may be found within tunnels in the ground made by other animals, or in tussock grass. Bumblebees sometimes construct a wax canopy ("involucrum") over the top of their nest for protection and insulation. Bumblebees do not often preserve their nests through the winter, though some tropical species live in their nests for several years (and their colonies can grow quite large, depending on the size of the nest cavity). In temperate species, the last generation of summer includes a number of queens who overwinter separately in protected spots. The queens can live up to one year, possibly longer in tropical species.
Colony Cycle
Bumblebee nests are first constructed by over-wintered queens in the spring (in temperate areas). Upon emerging from hibernation, the queen collects pollen and nectar from flowers and searches for a suitable nest site. The characteristics of the nest site vary among bumblebee species, with some species preferring to nest in underground holes and others in tussock grass or directly on the ground. Once the queen has found a site, she prepares wax pots to store food and wax cells into which eggs are laid. These eggs then hatch into larvae, which cause the wax cells to expand isometrically into a clump of brood cells.
These larvae need to be fed both nectar for carbohydrates and pollen for protein in order to develop. Bumblebees feed nectar to the larvae by chewing a small hole in the brood cell into which nectar is regurgitated. Larvae are fed pollen in one of two ways, depending on the bumblebee species. So called "pocket-maker" bumblebees create pockets of pollen at the base of the brood cell clump from which the larvae can feed themselves. Conversely, "pollen-storers" store pollen in separate wax pots and feed it to the larvae in the same fashion as nectar.[5] Bumble bees are incapable of trophallaxis (direct transfer of food from one bee to another).
With proper care, the larvae progress through four instars, becoming successively larger with each molt. At the end of the fourth instar the larvae spin silk cocoons under the wax covering the brood cells, changing them into pupal cells. The larvae then undergo an intense period of cellular growth and differentiation and become pupae. These pupae then develop into adult bees, and chew their way out of the silk cocoon. When adult bumblebees first emerge from their cocoons, the hairs on their body are not yet fully pigmented and are a greyish-white color. The bees are referred to as "callow" during this time, and they will not leave the colony for at least 24 hours. The entire process from egg to adult bee can take as long as five weeks, depending on the species and the environmental conditions.
After the emergence of the first or second group of workers, workers take over the task of foraging and the queen spends most of her time laying eggs and caring for larvae. The colony grows progressively larger and at some point will begin to produce males and new queens. The point at which this occurs varies among species and is heavily dependent on resource availability and environmental factors. Unlike the workers of more advanced social insects, bumblebee workers are not physically reproductively sterile and are able to lay haploid eggs that develop into viable male bumble bees. Only fertilized queens can lay diploid eggs that mature into workers and new queens.
Early in the colony cycle, the queen bumblebee compensates for potential reproductive competition from workers by suppressing their egg-laying by way of physical aggression and pheromonal signals.[6] Thus, the queen will usually be the mother of all of the first males laid. Workers eventually begin to lay males later in the season when the queen's ability to suppress their reproduction diminishes.[7] The reproductive competition between workers and the queen is one reason that bumble bees are considered "primitively eusocial".
New queens and males leave the colony after maturation. Males in particular are forcibly driven out by the workers. Away from the colony, the new queens and males live off nectar and pollen and spend the night on flowers or in holes. The queens are eventually mated (often more than once) and search for a suitable location for diapause (dormancy) .
Foraging Behavior
Bumblebees generally visit flowers exhibiting the bee pollination syndrome. They can visit patches of flowers up to 1-2 kilometres from their colony.[8] Bumblebees will also tend to visit the same patches of flowers every day, as long as nectar and pollen continue to be available.[9] While foraging, bumblebees can reach ground speeds of up to 15 m/s (54 km/h).[10]
When bumblebees arrive at a flower, they extract nectar using their long tongue ("glossa") and store it in their crop. Many species of bumblebee also exhibit what is known as "nectar robbing": instead of inserting the mouthparts into the flower normally, these bees bite directly through the base of the corolla to extract nectar, avoiding pollen transfer.[11] These bees obtain pollen from other species of flowers that they “legitimately” visit.
Pollen is removed from flowers deliberately or incidentally by bumblebees. Incidental removal occurs when bumblebees come in contact with the anthers of a flower while collecting nectar. The bumblebee's body hairs receive a dusting of pollen from the anthers which is then groomed into the corbiculae ("pollen baskets"). Bumblebees are also capable of buzz pollination.
In at least a few species, once a bumblebee has visited a flower, it leaves a scent mark on the flower. This scent mark deters visitation of the flower by other bumblebees until the scent degrades.[12] It has been shown that this scent mark is a general chemical bouquet that bumblebees leave behind in different locations (e.g. nest, neutral, and food sites),[13] and they learn to use this bouquet to identify both rewarding and unrewarding flowers.[14] In addition, bumblebees rely on this chemical bouquet more when the flower has a high handling time (i.e. it takes a longer time for the bee to find the nectar).[15]
Once they have collected nectar and pollen, bumblebees return to the nest and deposit the harvested nectar and pollen into brood cells, or into wax cells for storage. Unlike honey bees, bumblebees only store a few days' worth of food and so are much more vulnerable to food shortages.[16] However, because bumblebees are much more opportunistic feeders than honey bees, these shortages may have less profound effects.[citation needed] Nectar is stored essentially in the form it was collected, rather than being processed into honey as is done by honey bees; it is therefore very dilute and watery, and is rarely consumed by humans.[citation needed]
"cuckoo" Bumblebees
Bumblebees of the subgenus Psithyrus (known as cuckoo bumblebees, and formerly considered a separate genus) are a lineage which live parasitically in the colonies of other bumblebees and have lost the ability to collect pollen. Before finding and invading a host colony, a Psithyrus female (there is no caste system in these species) will feed directly from flowers. Once she has infiltrated a host colony, the Psithyrus female will kill or subdue the queen of that colony and forcibly (using pheromones and/or physical attacks) "enslave" the workers of that colony to feed her and her young.[17] The female Psithyrus also has a number of morphological adaptations, such as larger mandibles and a larger venom sac that increase her chances of taking over a nest.[18] Upon hatching, the male and female Psithyrus disperse and mate. Like non-parasitic bumblebee queens, female Psithyrus find suitable locations to spend the winter and enter diapause upon being mated.
Reproduction
In temperate zone species, in the autumn, young queens ("gynes") mate with males (drones) and diapause during the winter in a sheltered area, whether in the ground or in a man-made structure. In the early spring, the queen comes out of diapause and finds a suitable place to create her colony, and then builds wax cells in which to lay her fertilized eggs from the previous winter. The eggs that hatch develop into female workers, and in time the queen populates the colony, with workers feeding the young and performing other duties similar to honey bee workers. New reproductives are produced in autumn, and the queen and workers die, as do the males.
Sting
Queen and worker bumblebees can sting, but unlike a honey bee's, a bumblebee's stinger lacks barbs -- so they can sting more than once.[19] Bumblebee species are normally non-aggressive, but will sting in defense of their nest, or if harmed. Female cuckoo bumblebees will aggressively attack host colony members, and sting the host queen, but will ignore other animals (including humans) unless disturbed.
Bumblebees and People
Bumblebees are important pollinators of both crops and wildflowers.
Agricultural U.S.A.
Bumblebees are increasingly cultured for agricultural use as pollinators because they can pollinate plant species that other pollinators cannot by using a technique known as buzz pollination. For example, bumblebee colonies are often emplaced in greenhouse tomato production, because the frequency of buzzing that a bumblebee exhibits effectively releases tomato pollen.[20]
The agricultural use of bumblebees is limited to pollination. Because bumblebees do not overwinter the entire colony, they are not obliged to stockpile honey, and are therefore not useful as honey producers.
Endangered Status
Bumblebees are in danger in many developed countries due to habitat destruction and collateral pesticide damage. In Britain, until relatively recently, 19 species of native true bumblebee were recognised along with six species of cuckoo bumblebees. Of these, three have already become extinct,[21][22] eight are in serious decline, and only six remain widespread.[23] A decline in bumblebee numbers could cause large-scale sweeping changes to the countryside, leading to inadequate pollination of certain plants.
The world's first bumblebee sanctuary was established at Vane Farm in the Loch Leven National Nature Reserve in Scotland in 2008.[24]
Myths
Flight
According to 20th century folklore, the laws of aerodynamics prove that the bumblebee should be incapable of flight, as it does not have the capacity (in terms of wing size or beats per second) to achieve flight with the degree of wing loading necessary. Not being aware of scientists 'proving' it cannot fly, the bumblebee succeeds under "the power of its own ignorance".[25] The origin of this myth has been difficult to pin down with any certainty. John McMasters recounted an anecdote about an unnamed Swiss aerodynamicist at a dinner party who performed some rough calculations and concluded, presumably in jest, that according to the equations, bumblebees cannot fly.[26] In later years McMasters has backed away from this origin, suggesting that there could be multiple sources, and that the earliest he has found was a reference in the 1934 French book Le vol des insectes; they had applied the equations of air resistance to insects and found that their flight was impossible, but that "One shouldn't be surprised that the results of the calculations don't square with reality".[27]
Some credit physicist Ludwig Prandtl (1875–1953) of the University of Göttingen in Germany with popularizing the myth. Others say it was Swiss gas dynamicist Jacob Ackeret (1898–1981) who did the calculations.
In 1934, French entomologist Antoine Magnan included the following passage in the introduction to his book Le Vol des Insectes:
Tout d'abord poussé par ce qui fait en aviation, j'ai appliqué aux insectes les lois de la résistance de l'air, et je suis arrivé avec M. SAINTE-LAGUE a cette conclusion que leur vol est impossible.
This means:
First prompted by the fact of aviation, I have applied the laws of the resistance of air to insects, and I arrived, with Mister Sainte-Lague, at the conclusion that their flight is impossible.
Magnan refers to his assistant André Sainte-Laguë who was, apparently, an engineer.
It is believed that the calculations which purported to show that bumblebees cannot fly are based upon a simplified linear treatment of oscillating aerofoils. The method assumes small amplitude oscillations without flow separation. This ignores the effect of dynamic stall, an airflow separation inducing a large vortex above the wing, which briefly produces several times the lift of the aerofoil in regular flight. More sophisticated aerodynamic analysis shows that the bumblebee can fly because its wings encounter dynamic stall in every oscillation cycle.[28]
Another description of a bee's wing function is that the wings work similarly to helicopter blades, "reverse-pitch semirotary helicopter blades".
Bees beat their wings approximately 200 times a second, which is 10–20 times as fast as nerve impulses can fire. They achieve this because their thorax muscles do not expand and contract on each nerve firing, but rather vibrate like a plucked rubber band.
Buzz
One common, yet incorrect, assumption is that the buzzing sound (
listen (help·info)) of bees is caused by the beating of their wings. The sound is actually the result of the bee vibrating its flight muscles, and this can be achieved while the muscles are decoupled from the wings—a feature known in bees but not other insects. This is especially pronounced in bumblebees, as they must warm up their bodies considerably to get airborne at low ambient temperatures.[4] Bumblebees have been known to reach an internal thoracic temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) using this method.
The distinctive buzz of a flying Bumblebee has inspired the orchestral interlude "Flight of the Bumblebee".
Selected Species
For a complete list, see List of world bumblebee species.
- Bombus fraternus
- New garden bumblebee, Bombus hypnorum
- Early bumblebee, Bombus pratorum
- Orange-belted bumblebee Bombus ternarius
- Buff-tailed bumblebee, or large earth bumblebee, Bombus terrestris
Associated Parasites
- Tracheal mites - Locustacarus buchneri< /li>
- Protozoans- Crithidia bombi
- Microsporidia- Nosema bombi
Photos
Taxonomy
The Tribe Bombini is a member of the Subfamily Bombinae. Here is the complete "parentage" of Bombini:
- Domain: Eukaryota
Whittaker & Margulis,1978 - eukaryotes
- Kingdom: Plantae
Haeckel, 1866
- Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae
Cavalier-Smith, 1981 - Green Plants
- Phylum: Tracheophyta
Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
- Subphylum: Euphyllophytina
- Infraphylum: Radiatopses Kenrick & Crane, 1997
- Subphylum: Euphyllophytina
- Phylum: Tracheophyta
Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998 - Vascular Plants
- Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae
Cavalier-Smith, 1981 - Green Plants
- Kingdom: Plantae
Haeckel, 1866
The Tribe Bombini is further organized into finer groupings including:
- Genus (269): Acer · Acinos · Aciphylla · Acridocarpus · Actinidia · Adelges · Adiantum · Adonis · Aechmea · Aerangis · Aeschynanthus · Agapanthus · Alchemilla · Alectorurus · Allium · Alnus · Alrawia · Alstroemeria · Alternanthera · Ampelodesmos · Anaphalis · Androsace · Areas · Arisaema · Arum · Astelia · Barleria · Barringtonia · Bedfordia · Bellendena · Berberis · Bergenia · Blandfordia · Bocconia · Bombus · Boronia · Brodiaea · Bromus · Brunfelsia · Bubo · Callistemon · Calydorea · Campanula · Carphephorus · Carpinus · Cassinia · Castanea · Ceanothus · Celmisia · Celtis · Chamaecyparis · Cheilanthes · Chrysolepis · Cipura · Clethra · Cliftonia · Clinopodium · Clitoria · Codonopsis · Colchicum · Colletia · Colobanthus · Conophthorus · Copernicia · Cornus · Cortaderia · Corylus · Costus · Cotinus · Craspedia · Crataegus · Crocus · Cryptococcus · Cupressus · Cyananthus · Cyathodes · Cyclamen · Daphne · Delphinium · Dietes · Dimorphanthera · Dionysia · Dioscorea · Dolichothele · Drapetes · Dryocopus · Dynaspidiotus · Echeveria · Elaeocarpus · Elettariopsis · Elymus · Epigeneium · Eremurus · Eriolobus · Erodium · Eucalyptus · Euonymus · Eurya · Ferula · Festuca · Ficaria · Florilegus · Forstera · Frasera · Fraxinus · Fritillaria · Fur · Furcraea · Gahnia · Galanthus · Geesinkorchis · Gentiana · Geranium · Geum · Guaiacum · Gunnera · Gymnocalycium · Haastia · Halesia · Halimium · Hamamelis · Haplopappus · Hatiora · Hedychium · Hemerocallis · Hermannia · Heteropsylla · Hosta · Hymenocallis · Hypericum · Ilex · Isodon · Juniperus · Kniphofia · Laphria · Leptocarpus · Leptocodon · Leptospermum · Leucanthemopsis · Ligularia · Ligusticum · Ligustrum · Lindera · Lobivia · Lyonia · Maianthemum · Mallophora · Mammillaria · Matsucoccus · Meliosma · Melocalamus · Mentzelia · Microstegium · Miscanthus · Mitchella · Moltkia · Muehlenbeckia · Nageliella · Nemopanthus · Notothlaspi · Nyssa · Oberonia · Odixia · Oreocharis · Oreopolus · Ornithodoros · Ornithogalum · Osmunda · Osteomeles · Paeonia · Papaver · Paradiplosis · Parahebe · Parnassia · Pelargonium · Penstemon · Petrochelidon · Petrocoptis · Photinia · Phyllodoce · Picea · Pinellia · Pinyonia · Platycarya · Plectranthus · Pleuranthodium · Polygonatum · Populus · Potentilla · Prostanthera · Pseudomertensia · Pseudoplusia · Pseudotsuga · Psithyrus · Pteridium · Pterocephalus · Pterostyrax · Purshia · Pyrgophyllum · Pyrola · Pyrus · Quercus · Raoulia · Rebutia · Rhus · Ribes · Richea · Saccharum · Sambucus · Sanguisorba · Sarcococca · Scilla · Scolopax · Shepherdia · Silene · Sparaxis · Stemmacantha · Stenocactus · Steremnius · Streptocarpus · Streptopus · Strophanthus · Styrax · Sulcorebutia · Swainsona · Swietenia · Symphytum · Tanacetum · Taphrorychus · Taxodium · Tetradium · Teucrium · Thaumetopoea · Thunbergia · Tigridia · Tilia · Trigonotis · Trillium · Ulmus · Umbellularia · Umbilicus · Uncinia · Undaria · Ungernia · Urceolina · Urginea · Ursinia · Urtica · Utricularia · Uvaria · Uvularia · Vaccinium · Valeriana · Vallaris · Vallisneria · Vallota · Vanilla · Vauquelinia · Vellozia · Veltheimia · Veratrum · Verbascum · Viburnum · Vriesea · Widdringtonia · Wisteria · Xanthorrhoea · Zeiraphera · Zombia
- Species: ZipcodeZoo has pages for 1,175 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in the Tribe Bombini.
Genera
Acer
Acinos
Acinos is a of ten species of annual and short-lived evergreen perennial woody plants native to southern Europe and western Asia. Its name comes from the Greek word akinos, the name of a small aromatic plant. They are small, tufted, bushy or spreading plants growing to 10-45 cm tall. The 2-lipped, tubular flowers are borne on erect sprikes in mid-summer. [more]
Aciphylla
Aciphylla is a genus of about 40 of plants in the Apiaceae family, endemic to New Zealand and Australia. They generally grow as tall spikes surrounded by rosettes of stiff, pointed leaves. [more]
Acridocarpus
Acridocarpus is a genus of in family Malpighiaceae. [more]
Actinidia
Climbing shrubs, glabrous or hairy, indumentum of stellate or simple hairs; pith solid or lamellate. Branches usually with linear, lengthwise lenticels; winter buds small, enclosed in swollen base of petiole or exposed. Leaves often long petiolate; stipules minute, obsolete, or absent; leaf blade membranous, papery, or leathery, venation penniveined, veinlets reticulate, usually in cross-bars, margin serrate or dentate, rarely entire. Inflorescences cymose, axillary, often pseudo-umbellate, few- or many flowered, or flowers solitary; bracts present, minute. Flowers white, pink, red, yellow, or green, bisexual, plants polygamous or functionally dioecious. Sepals (2-) 5(or 6), distinct or connate at base, imbricate, rarely valvate, persistent or not. Petals (4 or) 5(or more than 5), imbricate. Stamens numerous, in functionally female flowers often with shorter filaments and smaller sterile anthers; filaments slender; anthers yellow, brown, purple, or black, versatile, attached at middle, 2-celled, dehiscing lengthwise, usually divaricate at base. Disk absent. Ovary ovoid, cylindrical, or bottle-shaped, glabrous or hairy, many loculed; ovules numerous per locule; styles as many as carpels (15-30), usually reflexed, persistent, radiating, in functionally female flower elongating after anthesis; rudimentary ovary in functionally male flower very small, with minute styles. Fruit a berry, globose, ovoid, or oblong, spotted with lenticels or not, glabrous or hairy. Seeds numerous, oblong, small, immersed in pulp; testa cartilaginous, reticulate-pitted; albumen copious and abundant; embryo comparatively large, cylindrical, straight, at center of albumen; cotyledons short.[1] [more]
Adelges
Adiantum
Plants terrestrial or on rock. Stems short- to long-creeping or suberect, branched; scales deep tawny yellow to dark reddish brown [black], concolored or bicolored, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, margins entire, erose-ciliate, or minutely dentate. Leaves monomorphic to somewhat dimorphic, densely clustered to closely spaced [distant], 15--110 cm. Petiole chestnut brown to dark purple or blackish, with single groove adaxially, glabrous, hispid, or strigose, with 1 or 2 vascular bundles. Blade lanceolate, ovate, trowel-shaped, or fan-shaped, 1--4(--9) -pinnate proximally, membranaceous to papery, both surfaces commonly glabrous (2 species with scattered hairs), adaxially dull or shiny, not striate; rachis straight or flexuous. Ultimate segments subsessile to short-stalked (stalks terminating in cupulelike swelling at base of pinna in A. tenerum ), round, fan-shaped, rhombic, or oblong, 3--29 mm wide; base truncate to cuneate, free from costa; stalk dark, often lustrous; fertile segments with marginal lobes recurved to form false indusia. Veins of ultimate segments conspicuous, free, ± dichotomously forking near base and well above segment base [anastomosing in a few tropical species], parallel distally. False indusia light gray-green or brown to dark brown, narrow, 0.6--1 mm wide, marginal, concealing sporangia until sporangia dehisce. Sporangia submarginal, borne along or sometimes also between veins on abaxial surface of false indusium, paraphyses and glands absent. Spores yellow or yellowish brown, tetrahedral-globose, trilete, rugulate to rugose or tuberculate, equatorial ridge absent. x = 29, 30.[2] [more]
Adonis
Herbs, annual, or perennial from stout rhizomes. Leaves basal and cauline (cauline often absent at flowering time), proximal leaves petiolate, distal leaves sessile; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade 1-3-pinnately dissected, segments narrowly linear, margins entire or with occasional tooth. Inflorescences terminal, flowers solitary; bracts absent. Flowers bisexual, radially symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit, 5(-8), nearly colorless or green, plane, obovate, 6-22 mm, apex ± erose; petals 3-20, distinct, yellow to red [white], often striped or basally darkened with black, purple, or blue, plane, oblanceolate, 8-35 mm; nectary absent; stamens 15-80; filaments filiform; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils ca. 20-50, simple; ovule 1 per pistil; style present. Fruits achenes, aggregate, sessile, nearly globose, sides veined or rugose; beak terminal, straight or strongly curved, 0.5-1 mm. x =8.[3] [more]
Aechmea
Aechmea is a of the botanical family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Bromelioideae. Aechmea has more than 140 species distributed from Mexico through South America. Most of the species in this genus are epiphytes. [more]
Aerangis
Aerangis, abbreviated as Aergs in horticultural trade, is a of the Orchid family (Orchidaceae). The name of this genus has been derived from the Greek words 'aer' (air) and 'angos' (urn), referring to the form of the lip. Approximately 50 species in this genus are known mostly from tropical Africa, but also from the Comoros Islands, Madagascar and Sri Lanka. [more]
Aeschynanthus
Shrubs or climbers, epiphytic or epipetric, not rhizomatous. Stems often pendent, branched or unbranched. Leaves usually many, along stem, opposite, sometimes whorled, equal to subequal in a pair; leaf blade glabrous, rarely puberulent or pubescent, base cuneate to rounded or attenuate. Inflorescences umbel-like, lax or sometimes dense, axillary or pseudoterminal, 1-10-flowered cymes; bracts 2, opposite. Calyx actinomorphic, 5-sect from base to 5-lobed; segments equal, rarely unequal. Corolla red to orange, seldom greenish, yellow, or white, zygomorphic, inside sparsely puberulent, sparsely glandular puberulent, glabrous, or with a hair ring; tube narrowly tubular to funnelform-tubular, often curved, not swollen, much longer than limb, 0.4-1.5 cm in diam.; limb indistinctly or distinctly 2-lipped; adaxial lip 2-lobed; usually equalling, occasionally to 1/2 X length of abaxial lip; abaxial lip 3-lobed, lobes equal or subequal, apex rounded to acute. Stamens 4, adnate to corolla tube near or above middle, usually exserted; anthers basifixed, usually coherent in pairs at apex, thecae parallel, not confluent, dehiscing longitudinally; connective not projecting; staminode 1 or absent, adnate to adaxial side of corolla tube. Disc ringlike. Ovary linear, 1-loculed; placentas 2, parietal, projecting inward, 2-cleft. Stigma 1, terminal, capitate to depressed-globose, undivided. Capsule straight in relation to pedicel, linear, much longer than calyx, dehiscing loculicidally to base; valves 2 or 4, straight, not twisted. Seeds with 1(or 2-50) hairlike appendages, opposite end with 1 hairlike appendage, seldom 1 linear appendage at each end.[4] [more]
Agapanthus
Agapanthus , the "Lily of the Nile", is a genus of flower plants with six to ten species depending on how the different species are classified. They are all perennial plants native to South Africa. They have been placed either in the family Alliaceae, or separated into their own monogeneric family Agapanthaceae (e.g. Indices Nominum Supragenericorum Plantarum Vascularium). [more]
Alchemilla
Herbs perennial (rarely annual), with woody rhizome. Stems decumbent to erect. Leaves stipulate, long petiolate; stipules adnate to sheathing petiole; leaf blade simple, ± orbicular, margin lobed, digitate, or palmately parted. Inflorescences usually dense corymbs, rarely lax cymes or a solitary flower, ebracteate. Flowers very small, bisexual. Hypanthium urceolate, persistent, with constricted throat. Sepals 4(or 5), valvate; epicalyx segments 4(or 5), alternating with sepals. Petals absent. Disk lining hypanthium, margin thickened. Stamens (1-) 4; filaments free, short. Carpel 1(-4), sessile or substipitate, free; ovule ascending from base of locule; style basal or adaxial, filiform, glabrous; stigma capitellate. Achene 1(-4), enclosed in membranous hypanthium. Seed basal; testa membranous; cotyledons cylindric-obovoid. x = 8.[5] [more]
Alectorurus
Allium
Herbs, perennial, scapose, from tunicate bulbs, with onion odor and taste. Bulbs solitary or clustered, dividing at base, or on rhizomes, reforming annually; outer coats generally brown or gray, smooth, fibrous, or with cellular reticulation (generally important in identification) ; inner coats membranous. Leaves generally withering from tip by anthesis, usually persistent, 1-12, basal; blade usually linear, terete, channeled, or flat (carinate in A. sativum, A. praecox, A. tuberosum, A. rotundum, A. neapolitanum, A. triquetrum, A. unifolium, and A. lacunosum), straight or ± falcate (coiled or circinate in A. nevadense and A. atrorubens), broader in A. victorialis and A. tricoccum, not petiolate (except in A. tricoccum and A. victorialis) . Scape usually persistent, terete or flattened. Inflorescences umbellate, flowering centripetally (centrifugally in A. schoenoprasum), sometimes replaced totally or partially by bulbils, subtended by spathe bracts; bracts conspicuous, ± fused, usually 3+-veined, equaling pedicel except in some introduced species, membranous. Flowers erect (pendent in A. triquetrum) ; tepals 6, in 2 similar whorls, ± distinct, petallike, usually becoming becoming dry and persisting; stamens 6, epipetalous; filaments in all but 1 native species broad at base, fused into ring (some introduced species and A. victorialis appendaged), linear, generally glabrous (A. rotundum and A. hoffmanii papillose to ciliate proximally) ; anthers and pollen variously colored; ovary superior, 3-lobed, sometimes crested with processes, 3-locular, usually 2 ovules per locule (6-8 in A. nigrum), crest processes 3 or 6, smooth except in A. haematochiton, A. sharsmithiae, and A. lacunosum; style 1; stigma capitate to ± 3-lobed; pedicel erect or spreading (lax in A. triquetrum) . Fruits capsular, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, obovoid, finely cellular-reticulate, cells smooth or minutely roughened, with 1-8 papillae, without caruncle except in A. triquetrum. x = 7, 8, 9.[6] [more]
Alnus
Trees or shrubs, to 35 m; trunks usually several, branching excurrent to deliquescent. Bark of trunks and branches light gray to dark brown, thin, smooth, close; lenticels often present, pale, prominent, sometimes horizontally expanded. Wood nearly white, turning reddish upon exposure to air, moderately light and soft, texture fine. Branches, branchlets, and twigs nearly 2-ranked to diffuse; young twigs uniform or ( Alnus subg. Alnobetula ) differentiated into long and short shoots. Winter buds stipitate (nearly sessile in Alnus subg. Alnobetula ), narrowly to broadly ovoid or ellipsoid, terete, apex acute to rounded; scales 2--3, valvate, or ( Alnus subg. Alnobetula ) several, imbricate, smooth, or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) sometimes none. Leaves borne on long or short shoots, 3-ranked to nearly 2-ranked. Leaf blade ovate to elliptic or obovate, thin to leathery, base variable, cuneate to rounded, margins doubly serrate, serrate, serrulate, or nearly entire, apex variable, acute to obtuse or acuminate to rounded; surfaces glabrous to tomentose, abaxially sometimes resinous-glandular. Inflorescences: staminate catkins lateral, in racemose clusters or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) solitary, formed ( Alnus subg. Alnus and Clethropsis ) during previous growing season and exposed or enclosed in buds during winter, or ( Alnus subg. Clethropsis ) formed and expanding during same growing season, expanding before or with leaves; pistillate catkins proximal to staminate catkins, solitary or in relatively small racemose clusters, erect to nearly pendulous, ovoid to ellipsoid, firm; scales and flowers crowded, developing and maturing at same time as staminate catkins. Staminate flowers in catkins, 3 per scale; stamens (3--) 4(--6) ; anthers and filaments undivided. Pistillate flowers usually 2 per scale. Infructescences erect or pendulous; scales persistent long after release of fruits, with 5 lobes, greatly thickened, woody. Fruits tiny samaras, lateral wings 2, leathery or membranaceous, reduced or essentially absent in some species. x = 7.[7] [more]
Alrawia
Alstroemeria
Herbs, perennial, from fascicles of fusiform tubers. Stems mostly simple; fertile stems to 1 m or more; sterile stems shorter, more leafy. Leaves alternate; petiole often twisted so as to invert leaf; blade parallel-veined, linear to ovate, margins entire. Inflorescences terminal, umbellate [or 1-flowered]. Flowers slightly zygomorphic; tepals 6, distinct, red, orange, purple, green, or white, frequently spotted, to 5 cm; stamens 6, inserted on perianth base, declinate, usually unequal; ovary inferior; style slender; stigma 3-lobed, filiform. Fruits capsular, 3-valved, dehiscence loculicidal.[8] [more]
Alternanthera
Herbs or subshrubs, annual or perennial. Stems prostrate, decumbent, ascending, erect, or floating, indumentum of simple trichomes. Leaves opposite, sessile or petiolate; blade lanceolate to ovate, ovate-rhombic, or obovate-rhombic, margins entire. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, sessile or pedunculate, several-flowered cylindric spikes or globose heads, without immediately subtending leaves; bracts and bracteoles scarious. Flowers bisexual; tepals 5, distinct; stamens 3-5; filaments connate basally into tube or short cup; pseudostaminodes 5, alternating with stamens; ovule 1; style 1, ca. 0.2 mm; stigma capitate or rarely 2-lobed. Utricles compressed, ovoid or obovoid, indehiscence. Seeds 1, reddish brown, lenticular or ovoid-oblong.[9] [more]
Ampelodesmos
Ampelodesmos is a monotypic genus of containing the single species Ampelodesmos mauritanicus, which is known by the common names stramma, Mauritania grass, rope grass, and dis grass. This is a clumping perennial grass which is native to the Mediterranean but has been introduced elsewhere and is cultivated as an ornamental. Its nodding flower panicles can be nearly two feet long. In its native area it is used as a fiber for making mats, brooms, and twine. The genus name comes from the Greek ampelos, "vine", and desmos, "bond", from its former use as a string to tie up grapevines. [more]
Anaphalis
Perennials [subshrubs] (dioecious or subdioecious), 20-80(-120+) cm; fibrous-rooted (rhizomatous, not stoloniferous). Stems usually 1, usually erect. Leaves basal and cauline; alternate; petiolate or sessile; blades oblanceolate or lanceolate to linear, bases ± cuneate, margins entire, faces usually bicolor [concolor], abaxial usually white to gray and tomentose (sometimes glandular as well, proximal leaves sometimes ± glabrate), adaxial usually greenish and glabrate or glabrous, sometimes grayish and sparsely arachnose. Heads usually discoid (unisexual or nearly so) or disciform, in glomerules in corymbiform or paniculiform arrays. Involucres subglobose, 6-8(-10) mm. Phyllaries in 8-12 series, bright white (opaque, at least toward tips, often proximally woolly; stereomes not glandular), unequal, ± papery (at least toward tips). Peripheral (pistillate) florets 50-150 (more numerous than staminate; sometimes a few pistillate florets peripheral in predominantly staminate heads or 1-9 staminate florets central in predominantly pistillate heads) ; corollas yellowish. Inner (functionally staminate) florets 30-55; corollas yellowish. Cypselae oblong [obclavate, ovoid, or cylindric] (2-nerved), faces ± scabrous (hairs clavate, not myxogenic) ; pappi usually readily falling, of 10-20 distinct or basally connate, barbellate bristles (tips of bristles ± clavate in bisexual or functionally staminate florets). x = 14.[10] [more]
Androsace
Herbs perennial, annual, or biennial, acaulescent, rarely caulescent with ascending or decumbent shoots from a caudex. Leaves forming a rosette, rarely alternate; rosettes solitary or clustered, forming lax mats or compact cushions. Inflorescences umbellate, rarely a solitary flower, with bracts. Flowers 5-merous, homostylous. Calyx campanulate to subglobose, shallowly to deeply lobed. Corolla white, pink, purple, or dark red, rarely yellow; tube usually ± inflated, ca. as long as to shorter than calyx; throat constricted; lobes entire or emarginate. Stamens included, inserted on corolla tube; filaments very short; anthers ovate, apex obtuse. Style not longer than corolla tube. Capsule subglobose, dehiscing nearly to base. Seeds few to many.[11] [more]
Areas
A Genus in the Kingdom Animalia.[12] [more]
Arisaema
Herbs, terrestrial or wetland. Corms [rhizomes] nearly globose. Leaves usually appearing with flowers, 1--2(--3), erect; petiole longer than blade; blade medium to dark green, sometimes glaucous adaxially, palmately or pedately [radiately] divided, not peltate, leaflet elliptic to broadly ovate or oblanceolate, base rounded to obtuse or attenuate, apex obtuse or acute to acuminate; primary lateral veins of each leaflet pinnate. Inflorescences: peduncle erect, nearly equal to leaves [to very short], apex not swollen; spathe variously colored or striped, distal part open at maturity, exposing tip to 1/2 or more of spadix appendage; spadix ± cylindric, surmounted by sterile appendage of variable shape. Flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same or different spadix; pistillate flowers congested; staminate flowers usually scattered, distal to pistillate flowers when both are present; perianth absent. Fruits not embedded in spadix, glossy orange to bright red. Seeds 1--6, mucilage sometimes present (not present in Arisaema triphyllum). x = 13, 14.[13] [more]
Arum
A genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]
Astelia
Astelia is a of rhizomatous tufted perennials which are native to the Pacific region as well as the Falkland Islands, Réunion and Mauritius. The species generally grow in forests, swamps and amongst low alpine vegetation; occasionally they are epiphytic. [more]
Barleria
Barleria is a genus of plants in the family . [more]
Barringtonia
Trees or shrubs. Stipules small, caducous. Leaf blade entire or serrate-crenate at margin. Inflorescences terminal or lateral, erect or pendulous racemes or spikes; bracts and bracteoles sessile, small, caducous. Receptacle obconic, 4-angled or 4-winged. Calyx of 4 or 5 persistent, imbricate lobes inserted on rim of receptacle, or breaking at anthesis into 2-5 persistent pseudo-lobes, or circumscissile leaving a cup-shaped rim. Petals (3 or) 4(or 6), basally adhering to staminal tube. Stamens many in 3-8 whorls, shortly connate, innermost 1-3 whorls shorter and sterile. Ovary 2-4-loculed; ovules 2-8 per locule; style exceeding stamens. Fruit sometimes angled or winged, with fleshy-fibrous exocarp and woody-fibrous endocarp. Seed 1, large; embryo fusiform, with spiral scales toward apex; cotyledons absent, hypocotyl erect, thick.[14] [more]
Bedfordia
Bedfordia is a genus of belonging to the family Asteraceae. The genus includes 3 species, all endemic to Australia. [more]
Bellendena
Berberis
Shrubs or subshrubs, evergreen or deciduous, 0.1-4.5(-8) m, glabrous or with tomentose stems. Rhizomes present or absent, short or long, not nodose. Stems branched or unbranched, monomorphic or dimorphic, i.e., all elongate or with elongate primary stems and short axillary spur shoots. Leaves alternate, sometimes leaves of elongate shoots reduced to spines and foliage leaves borne only on short shoots; foliage leaves simple or 1-odd-pinnately compound; petioles usually present. Simple leaves: blade narrowly elliptic, oblanceolate, or obovate, 1.2-7.5 cm. Compound leaves: rachis, when present, with or without swollen articulations; leaflet blades lanceolate to orbiculate, margins entire, toothed, spinose, or spinose-lobed; venation pinnate or leaflets 3-6-veined from base. Inflorescences terminal, usually racemes, rarely umbels or flowers solitary. Flowers 3-merous, 3-8 mm; bracteoles caducous, 3, scalelike; sepals falling immediately after anthesis, 6, yellow; petals 6, yellow, nectariferous; stamens 6; anthers dehiscing by valves; pollen exine punctate; ovary symmetrically club-shaped; placentation subbasal; style central. Fruits berries, spheric to cylindric-ovoid or ellipsoid, usually juicy, sometimes dry, at maturity. Seeds 1-10, tan to red-brown or black; aril absent. x = 14.[15] [more]
Bergenia
Herbs perennial, forming large clumps. Rhizomes creeping, large, thick, scaly. Leaves all basal, ± persistent, simple, waxy, often leathery; petiole short, broad, sheathing at base; leaf blade thick, margin entire, crenate, or dentate. Infloresences cymose, bracteate. Flowers showy, large. Sepals 5. Petals 5, white, pink, red, or purple. Stamens 10. Carpels 2, basally connate; ovary 1/4 subsuperior, proximally 2-loculed with axile placentation and distally 1-loculed with marginal placentation; styles 2; ovules many. Fruit a capsule. Seeds numerous, dark brown, small.[16] [more]
Blandfordia
Blandfordia is a of flowering plants which are native to eastern Australia. Plants in this genus are commonly referred to as Christmas Bells due to the shape of their flowers and the timing of their flowering season in Australia. Blandfordia is the sole genus in the family Blandfordiaceae and was named by English botanist James Edward Smith in 1804 in honour of George Spencer Churchill, the Marquis of Blandford. [more]
Bocconia
Bocconia is a of the family Papaveraceae. It was named after the Italian botanist Paolo Boccone by Carolus Linnaeus, and contains about 10 species. [more]
Bombus
A bumblebee (or bumble bee) is any member of the genus Bombus, in the family Apidae. There are over 250 known species, existing primarily in the Northern Hemisphere. [more]
Boronia
Boronia is a of about 90-100 species of evergreen shrubs of the tribe Boronieae in the family Rutaceae. They are found all over Australia. [more]
Brodiaea
Herbs, perennial, scapose, from fibrous-coated corms. Leaves 1-6, basal; blade linear, crescent-shaped in cross section. Scape solitary, cylindrical, usually slender, occasionally stout, rigid. Inflorescences umbellate, open, bracteate; bracts scarious, not enclosing flower buds. Flowers: perianth 6-tepaled, distinctly connate proximally into tube, shiny, abaxial perianth usually bluish purple, tube narrowly campanulate or funnelform, outer 3 lobes narrower than inner 3; stamens 3, epitepalous, opposite inner perianth lobes, alternating with 3 staminodia (staminodia absent in B. orcuttii) opposite outer perianth lobes; filaments adnate to perianth tube, linear, base sometimes dilated to form triangular flap, or sometimes with abaxial wings or appendages; anthers basifixed, appressed to style; pistil 3-carpellate; ovary superior, green (purple in B. jolonensis), sessile, 3-locular, ovules several; style erect; stigma 3-lobed, lobes distinctly spreading and recurved; pedicel erect, articulate at base. Fruits capsular, ovoid, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, rounded to flattened, coat with crust with longitudinal surface striations. x = 6, 8, 12, 16, 18, 20, or 24.[17] [more]
Bromus
Annuals or perennials. Culms erect, tufted or with rhizomes. Leaf sheaths closed; leaf blades linear, usually flat; ligules membranous. Panicles spreading or contracted, branches scabrid or pubescent, elongated or arched. Spikelets large, with 3 to many florets, upper florets often sterile; rachilla disarticulating above glumes and between florets, scabrid or shortly hairy; glumes unequal or subequal, shorter than spikelet, lanceolate or nearly ovate, (1-) 5-7-veined, apex acute or long acuminate or aristiform; floret callus glabrous or both sides thinly hairy; lemmas rounded on back or compressed to keel, 5-9(-11) -veined, herbaceous or nearly leathery, margins often membranous, apex entire or 2-toothed; awn terminal or arising from lemma between teeth slightly under apex, rarely awnless or 3-awned; palea narrow, usually shorter than lemma, keels ciliate or scabrid. Lodicules 2. Stamens 3. Ovary apex with appendage; styles 2, arising from lower front of appendage. Caryopsis oblong, apex hairy, adaxial surface sulcate. Chromosomes large, x = 7, 2n = 14, 28, 42, 56, 70.[18] [more]
Brunfelsia
Brunfelsia is a of about 40 species of neotropical shrubs and small trees. [more]
Bubo
A Genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]
Callistemon
Bottlebrush (Callistemon, pronounced ) is a with 34 species of shrubs in the family Myrtaceae. The majority of Callistemon species are endemic to Australia; four species are also found in New Caledonia. They are commonly referred to as bottlebrushes because of their cylindrical, brush like flowers resembling a traditional bottle brush. They are found in the more temperate regions of Australia, mostly along the east coast and south-west, and typically favour moist conditions so when planted in gardens thrive on regular watering. However, at least some of the species are drought-resistant. [more]
Calydorea
Herbs, perennial, from tunicate, ovoid bulbs; tunic brown, dry, brittle, papery. Stems simple or branched. Leaves few, basal larger; blade pleated, linear-lanceolate. Inflorescences rhipidiate, few-flowered; spathes green, unequal, outer shorter than inner, apex usually brown, acute, dry. Flowers short-lived, erect, actinomorphic; tepals spreading from base, distinct, blue to mauve, ± equal [outer whorl considerably larger than inner]; stamens distinct or filaments variously connate; anthers sometimes connate basally; style eccentric [central] when flower fully open, recurving, slender, branching between middle of filaments and anther apices [branching distal to anthers or 3-lobed apically]; branches [lobes] ascending, undivided, short, stigmatic apically. Capsules ovoid to oblong, cartilaginous, apex truncate. Seeds many, prismatic; seed coat brown. x = 7.[19] [more]
Campanula
Plants perennial or annual, erect trailing or decumbent, glabrous, pubescent, or hirsute. Leaves simple, alternate or forming rosettes at the base. Inflorescence 1-many flowered, with racemes or spikes. Flowers blue to purple or white. Sepals 5, with or without reflexed appendages between lobes; calyx tube adnate to the ovary, segments 5-lobed. Corolla campanulate, funnel-shaped or tubular. Stamens 5, free, filaments dilated at the base. Ovary 3-locular; style cylindrical; stigmas 3. Fruit a capsule, elongated to ovoid, obovoid or round, with membran¬ous walls; dehiscence by irregular pores at the bases or the sides. Seeds minute, numerous.[20] [more]
Carphephorus
Perennials, 20-60+ cm (caudices relatively thick, fibrous-rooted). Stems erect, not branched (± scapiform). Leaves basal and cauline; alternate; ± petiolate (basal) or sessile; blades (usually appressed to strictly ascending) usually 1-nerved, linear to oblanceolate or spatulate, margins entire or remotely dentate (involute in C. pseudoliatris), faces glabrous or hairy, often gland-dotted. Heads discoid, in corymbiform to paniculiform arrays. Involucres campanulate to hemispheric, 3-12 mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, (5-) 8-40 in (1-) 2-5+ series, not notably nerved, ovate to elliptic or lanceolate, unequal (herbaceous to scarious). Receptacles convex, paleate or epaleate. Florets 12-35; corollas usually lavender to dark magenta or pinkish purple, sometimes blue, throats funnelform (sometimes externally gland-dotted, lengths 4-6 times diams.) ; styles: bases not enlarged, glabrous, branches linear-clavate (± papillose distally). Cypselae prismatic, ca. 10-ribbed, scabrellous to hispid-strigose, sometimes gland-dotted; pappi persistent, of 35-40, barbellulate to barbellate (subequal) bristles in 1-2 series. x = 10.[21] [more]
Carpinus
Trees, 8--25 m; trunks usually 1, branching mostly deliquescent, trunk and branches irregularly longitudinally ridged, fluted. Bark of trunk and branches bluish to brownish gray, thin, smooth, close [thicker, broken or shredded]; lenticels generally inconspicuous. Wood nearly white to light brown, very hard and heavy, texture fine. Branches, branchlets, and twigs conspicuously 2-ranked; young twigs differentiated into long and short shoots. Winter buds sessile, ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, apex acute; scales many, imbricate, smooth. Leaves on long and short shoots, 2-ranked. Leaf blade narrowly ovate to ovate, elliptic, or obovate with 10 or more pairs of lateral veins, 3--12 × 3--6 cm, thin, margins doubly serrate to serrulate; surfaces abaxially glabrous to tomentose, sometimes covered with small glands. Inflorescences: staminate catkins solitary or in small racemose clusters, lateral, formed previous growing season and enclosed [exposed] in buds during winter, expanding with leaves; pistillate catkins distal to staminate on short, leafy new growth, solitary, ± erect, elongate; bracts and flowers uncrowded. Staminate flowers in catkins 3 per scale, crowded together on pilose receptacle; stamens 3(--6), short; filaments often distinct part way to base; anthers divided into 2 parts, each 1-locular, apex pilose, Pistillate flowers 2 per bract. Infructescences loose racemose clusters of paired bracts, clusters pendulous, elongate; paired bracts deciduous with fruit, expanded, (1--) 3-lobed, variously toothed, foliaceous, each bract subtending 1 fruit. Fruits small nutlets, deltoid, longitudinally ribbed, often crowned with persistent sepals and styles. x = 8.[22] [more]
Cassinia
Cassinia is a large of plants in the family Asteraceae, most or all of which are native to the Southern Hemisphere. It was named for French botanist Alexandre de Cassini. [more]
Castanea
Trees or shrubs, winter-deciduous, sometimes rhizomatous. Terminal buds absent, pseudoterminal bud (axillary bud of youngest leaf) ovoid, with 2 unequal opposite outer scales enclosing several imbricate inner scales. Leaves: stipules prominent on new growth, soon deciduous. Leaf blade thin, somewhat leathery, secondary veins unbranched, ±parallel, extending to margin, each vein ending in sharp tooth or well-developed awn. Inflorescences staminate or androgynous, axillary, spicate, erect, rigid or flexible; androgynous inflorescences with pistillate cupules/flowers toward base and staminate flowers distally. Staminate flowers: sepals distinct; stamens 12(-18), typically surrounding indurate pistillode covered with silky hairs. Pistillate flowers 1-3 per cupule; sepals distinct; carpels and styles typically 6(-9). Fruits: maturation in 1st year following pollination (termed annual by many authors) ; cupule 2-4-valved, valves connate marginally until maturity, ±completely enclosing nut(s), spiny, spines irregularly branched, often interlocking, densely or sparsely covered in simple hairs; nuts 1-3 per cupule, plano-convex, or if 3, then central nut often reduced and flattened, or if solitary, then often rounded in cross section, not winged, adjacent nuts not separated by internal cupule valves. x = 12.[23] [more]
Ceanothus
Ceanothus is a genus of about 50–60 species of shrubs or small trees in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. The genus is confined to North America, the center of its distribution in California, with some species (e.g. C. americanus) in the eastern United States and southeast Canada, and others (e.g. C. coeruleus) extending as far south as Guatemala. Most are shrubs 0.5–3 m tall, but C. arboreus and C. thyrsiflorus, both from California, can be small trees up to 6–7 m tall. [more]
Celmisia
Celmisia is a of perennial herbs or subshrubs, in the family Asteraceae. There are around 70 species; most are endemic to New Zealand, butween four and 10 are endemic to Australia. The genus was first formally described by botanist Alexandre de Cassini in 1813. [more]
Celtis
Trees or rarely shrubs, to 30 m; crowns spreading. Bark usually gray, smooth or often fissured and conspicuously warty. Branches without or with thorns, slender, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves: stipules falling early. Leaf blade deltate to ovate to oblong-lanceolate, base oblique or cuneate to rounded, margins entire or serrate-dentate; venation 3(-5) -pinnate. Inflorescences: staminate inflorescences cymes or fascicles; pistillate solitary or few-flowered clusters. Flowers usually unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same plants, along with a few bisexual flowers, pedicellate on branches of current year, appearing in mid or late spring. Staminate flowers: filaments incurved in bud, exserted after anthesis; gynoecium minute, rudimentary. Pistillate flowers: calyx slightly to deeply 4(-5) -lobed; stamens 4-5, inserted on pilose receptacle, included, often nonfunctional filaments usually shorter than in staminate flowers, rarely absent; anthers ovate, face to face in bud, extrorse; ovaries sessile, ovoid, 1-locular; styles short, sessile, divided into 2 divergent, elongate, reflexed lobes, lobes entire or 2-cleft. Fruits fleshy drupes, ovoid or globose; outer mesocarp thick, firm, inner mesocarp thin, fleshy; stones thick walled, ripening in autumn, persisting after leaves fall. x = 10.[24] [more]
Chamaecyparis
Trees (rarely shrubs). Branchlets terete or rhombic in cross section, in fan-shaped or pinnately flattened sprays. Leaves opposite in 4 ranks. Adult leaves usually appressed, lateral and facial pairs similar, closely overlapping, scalelike, free portion of long-shoot leaves to ca. 7 mm; abaxial glands present or absent, circular to linear. Pollen cones with 2--3 pairs of sporophylls, each sporophyll with 2--4 pollen sacs. Seed cones maturing and opening in 1--2 years, nearly globose, glaucous, 4--12 mm; scales persistent, 2--5(--6) pairs, valvate, peltate or basifixed, thick and woody, terminal pair often fused. Seeds 1--4 per cone scale, lenticular, equally 2-winged; cotyledons 2--3. x = 11.[25] [more]
Cheilanthes
Plants usually on rock. Stems compact to long-creeping, ascending to horizontal, usually branched; scales brown to black or often bicolored with dark central stripe and lighter margins, linear-subulate to ovate-lanceolate, margins entire or denticulate. Leaves monomorphic, clustered to widely scattered, 4--60 cm. Petiole brown to black or straw-colored, rounded, flattened, or with single longitudinal groove adaxially, pubescent, scaly, or glabrous, with a single vascular bundle. Blade linear-oblong to lanceolate, ovate, or elongate-pentagonal, pinnate-pinnatifid to 4-pinnate at base, leathery or rarely somewhat herbaceous, abaxially pubescent and/or scaly, rarely glabrous, adaxially pubescent to glabrous, dull, not striate; rachis straight. Ultimate segments of blade stalked or sessile, usually free from costae, round to elongate or spatulate, usually less than 4 mm wide, base rounded, truncate, or cuneate; stalks (when present) often lustrous and dark colored; segment margins usually recurved to form confluent, poorly defined false indusia, extending entire length of segment or discontinuous on apical or lateral lobes. Veins of ultimate segments free or rarely anastomosing, pinnately branched and divergent distally. False indusia greenish to whitish, usually narrow, clearly marginal or rarely inframarginal, often concealing sporangia. Sporangia confined to submarginal vein tips or scattered along veins near segment margins, containing 64 or 32 spores, not intermixed with farina-producing glands. Spores brown to black or gray, rarely yellowish, tetrahedral-globose, rugose or cristate, lacking prominent equatorial ridge. Gametophytes glabrous. x = 30 (29 in Cheilanthes alabamensis complex).[26] [more]
Chrysolepis
Trees or shrubs, evergreen. Terminal buds present, ovoid or subglobose, scales imbricate. Leaves: stipules prominent on new growth, often persistent around buds. Leaf blade thick, leathery, margins entire or obscurely toothed, secondary veins obscure, branching and anastomosing before reaching margin. Inflorescences staminate or androgynous, axillary, clustered at ends of branches, spicate, ascending, rigid or flexible; androgynous inflorescences with pistillate cupules/flowers toward base and staminate flowers distally. Staminate flowers: sepals distinct; stamens (6-) 12(-18), typically surrounding indurate pistillode covered with silky hairs. Pistillate flowers (1-) 3 or more per cupule; sepals distinct; carpels and styles typically 3. Fruits: maturation in 2d year following pollination (termed biennial by many authors) ; cupule 2-several-valved, valves distinct, completely enclosing nuts, densely spiny, spines irregularly branched, interlocking, without simple hairs, with large, yellowish, multicellular glands; nuts (1-) 3-several per cupule, 3-angled to rounded in cross section, not winged, adjacent nuts separated from each other by internal cupule valves. x = 12.[27] [more]
Cipura
Clethra
Morphological characters and geographic distribution are the same as for the family.[28] [more]
Cliftonia
Clinopodium
Herbs perennial. Leaves dentate, reduced upward, bractlike. Verticillasters ± headlike, in panicles; peduncle sometimes present; bracts linear to needlelike, to as long as calyx. Calyx tubular, 13-veined, sometimes constricted at middle, swollen on 1 side at base, straight or slightly curved, throat sparsely hairy, limb 2-lipped; upper lip 3-toothed, teeth ciliate, apex mucronate; lower lip longer, 2-toothed. Corolla purple-red, reddish, or white, 2-lipped; tube exserted, gradually dilated upward to throat, with 2 rows of hairs, puberulent; upper lip straight, apex emarginate; lower lip 3-lobed, lateral lobes entire; middle lobe larger, emarginate or entire. Stamens 4, anterior 2 longer than posterior 2, reaching upper corolla lip, included or slightly exserted, posterior stamens sometimes rudimentary; anther cells 2, divaricate, ± obliquely inserted on dilated connectives. Style apex unequally 2-cleft, anterior lobe lanceolate, posterior lobe indistinct; ovary glabrous. Nutlets ovoid or subglobose, less than 1 mm in diam., glabrous, areolae small, basal.[29] [more]
Clitoria
Climbing or erect herbs or shrubs, rarely trees. Leaf mostly pinnately 3-9-foliolate; stipels and stipules present. Inflorescence racemose or axillary solitary or paired. Bracts stipule-like; bracteoles large. Calyx 5 toothed, 2 upper teeth subconnate. Corolla white, red or blue. Vexillum without appendages, larger than other petals. Stamens monadelphous or diadelphous, 9+1, vexillary stamen free; anthers uniform or 5 dorsifixed alternating with 5 subbasifixed. Ovary stipitate, 2-many ovuled, style more or less flattened, bearded inside, stigma terminal. Fruit linear-oblong, compressed or turgid.[30] [more]
Codonopsis
Plants perennial, twining, decumbent or erect. Flowers solitary, terminal or axillary. Calyx lobes 5, foliaceous. Corolla campanulate with 5 short lobes; bluish-green. Stamens 5, free, filaments flattened, situated on the margin of the disc. Capsule fleshy when young, becoming dry and hard, beaked, dehiscing localicidally by 3 valves. Ovary 3-locular; styles cylindrical; stigmas 3, flattened.[31] [more]
Colchicum
Perennial. Corm covered with a brown to dark-brown coat. Roots fibrous, arising from one side of the basal part of the corm. Young leaves enclosed in leaf sheaths. Flowers 1-3, arising directly from the corm or on a very short scape. Perianth of 6 segments, united at the base of the segments to form a tube or split to the base. Stamens 6, epiphyllous. Ovary 3-celled; styles 3, free. Fruit a many-seeded capsule.[32] [more]
Colletia
Colletia is a of flowering plants in the family Rhamnaceae, with 15 to 17 species of spiny shrubs. All species of this genus are native to southern South America. [more]
Colobanthus
Colobanthus is a large genus of small, -like herbaceous plants, sometimes known as "pearlworts", a name they share with plants of the related genus Sagina. [more]
Conophthorus
Copernicia
Copernicia is a of 24 species of palms, native to South America and the Caribbean. They are fan palms (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae), with the leaves with a bare petiole terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets. The species are small to medium-sized trees growing to 5-30 m tall, typically occurring close to streams and rivers in savanna habitats. [more]
Cornus
Shrubs, trees, or herblike shrubs, precocious, coetaneous, or serotinous. Young shoots pubescent, rarely glabrous; trichomes curly or straight, raised or appressed. Stem sympodial, rarely monopodial. Winter buds terminal or axillary, mixed or separate, covered or exposed. Petiole slightly furrowed adaxially; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, elliptic, oblong, or ovate, glabrous to densely pubescent, lateral veins actinodromous, often raised abaxially. Inflorescence formed in previous or current year; bracts covering inflorescence or not. Sepals 4, fused; teeth absent, minute, or variously triangular. Petals 4, free, spreading, oblong to orbicular, valvate. Filaments filiform or awn-shaped, longer than style, longer or shorter than petals; anthers whitish or yellow, rarely blue, red, or purplish, ellipsoid to narrowly ellipsoid or oblong, 2-loculed. Ovary obovoid, crowned by a disk. Fruit globose, ovoid, oblong, or ellipsoid, crowned by persistent calyx, disk, and style; stones globose, ovoid, ellipsoid, oblong, sometimes asymmetric, surface smooth or ribbed, apex rarely pitted.[33] [more]
Cortaderia
Cortaderia is a of 20-25 species of grasses, native to South America (15-20 species), New Zealand (four species) and New Guinea (one species). [more]
Corylus
Shrubs and trees, 3--15 m; tree trunks usually 1, branching mostly deliquescent, trunks and branches terete. Bark grayish brown, thin, smooth, close, breaking into vertical strips and scales in age; prominent lenticels absent. Wood nearly white to light brown, moderately hard, heavy, texture fine. Branches, branchlets, and twigs nearly 2-ranked to diffuse; young twigs differentiated into long and short shoots. Winter buds sessile, broadly ovoid, apex acute; scales several, imbricate, smooth. Leaves on long and short shoots, 2-ranked. Leaf blade broadly ovate with 8 or fewer pairs of lateral veins, 4--12 × 3.5--12 cm, thin, bases often cordate, margins doubly serrate, apex occasionally nearly lobed; surfaces abaxially usually pubescent, sometimes glandular. Inflorescences: staminate catkins on short shoots lateral on branchlets, in numerous racemose clusters, formed previous growing season and exposed during winter, expanding well before leaves; pistillate catkins distal to staminate catkins, in small clusters of flowers and bracts, reduced, only styles protruding from buds containing them at anthesis, expanding at same time as staminate. Staminate flowers in catkins 3 per scale, congested; stamens 4, divided nearly to base to form 8 half-stamens; filaments very short, adnate with 2 bractlets to bract. Pistillate flowers 2 per bract. Infructescences compact clusters of several fruits, each subtended and surrounded by involucre of bracts, bracts 2, hairy [spiny], expanded, foliaceous, sometimes connate into short to elongate tube. Fruits relatively thin-walled nuts, nearly globose to ovoid, somewhat laterally compressed, longitudinally ribbed. x = 11.[34] [more]
Costus
Rhizomes horizontal, tuberous. Stems sometimes branched, usually spirally twisted, leafy, rarely plants stemless. Leaf blade oblong to lanceolate. Inflorescences terminal or lateral on separate, short, leafless shoots arising from rhizomes, conical, densely many flowered; bracts imbricate, 1- or 2-flowered. Calyx 3-lobed or -toothed at apex. Corolla tube equaling or longer than calyx. Labellum obovate, large, margin incurved. Stamen petaloid; anther locules linear. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules many per locule, superposed. Style filiform; stigma funnelform. Stylodes absent. Capsule subglobose or ovoid, woody. Seeds many, black; aril lacerate.[35] [more]
Cotinus
Smoketree or Smoke bush (Cotinus ) is a of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs (Rhus). [more]
Craspedia
Craspedia is a genus of commonly known as billy buttons or woollyheads. They are native to Australia and New Zealand where they grow in a variety of habitats from sea level to the alps. The genus is found in every state of Australia except the Northern Territory. In New Zealand, Craspedia is found south from about East Cape in the North Island to Stewart Island. It also occurs on Campbell Island 660 km S of Stewart Island, and the Chatham Islands, 800 km E of East Cape. Craspedia are rosette-forming herbs with secondarily compound capitula (glomerules) that are borne on erect, unbranched scapes. The glomerules or flower-heads are hemispherical to spherical (like pom poms) and are formed of a massive aggregation of tiny flowers (florets). Most species are perennial with one species recorded as annual. Twenty three-species are currently accepted, six from New Zealand and 17 from Australia. Leaves have considerable variation in form, they range in color from white through to grass green, and are often covered in fine hairs. [more]
Crataegus
Shrubs, subshrubs, or small trees, deciduous, rarely evergreen, armed, rarely unarmed; buds ovoid or subglobose. Leaves simple, stipulate, venation craspedodromous, margin serrate and lobed or partite, rarely entire. Inflorescences corymbose, sometimes flowers solitary. Hypanthium campanulate. Sepals 5. Petals 5, white, rarely pinkish. Stamens 5-25; carpels 1-5, connate, but free apically. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, with 2 ovules per locule, but one rudimentary. Fruit a pome, with persistent sepals at apex; carpels bony when mature, each locule with 1 seed; seed erect, cotyledons plano-convex.[36] [more]
Crocus
Herbs small, perennial, cormous. Corms oblate, covered with a tunic. Leaves few, all basal, green, linear, adaxially with pale, median stripe, base surrounded by membranous, sheathlike leaves. Aerial stem not developed. Flowers emerging from ground, with peduncle and ovary subterranean. Perianth white, yellow, or lilac to dark purple; tube long, slender; segments similar, equal or subequal. Stamens inserted in throat of perianth tube. Style 1, slender, distally with 3 to many branches. Capsule small, ellipsoid or oblong-ellipsoid.[37] [more]
Cryptococcus
A Genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]
Cupressus
Trees or large shrubs evergreen. Branchlets terete or quadrangular, in decussate arrays (or partially comblike in Cupressus macnabiana ). Leaves opposite in 4 ranks. Adult leaves appressed to divergent, scalelike, rhomboid, free portion of long-shoot leaves to 4 mm; abaxial gland present or absent. Pollen cones with 4--10 pairs of sporophylls, each sporophyll with 3--10 pollen sacs. Seed cones maturing in 1--2 years, generally persisting closed many years or until opened by fire, globose or oblong, 1--4 cm; scales persistent, 3--6 pairs, valvate, peltate, thick and woody. Seeds 5--20 per scale, lenticular or faceted, narrowly 2-winged; cotyledons 2--5. x = 11.[38] [more]
Cyananthus
Cyathodes
Cyclamen
Cyclamen is a of 23 species of flowering plants, traditionally classified in the family Primulaceae, but in recent years reclassified in the family Myrsinaceae (Kallersjo et al. 2000). The genus is most widely known by its scientific name Cyclamen being taken into common usage; other names occasionally used include sowbread and sometimes, confusingly, Persian violet (it is not related to the violets), or primrose (neither is it a primrose). [more]
Daphne
Shrubs or subshrubs, evergreen or deciduous. Branches glabrous or pubescent. Leaves mostly alternate, sometimes opposite; petiole short. Inflorescence usually terminal, sometimes axillary, capitate or shortly racemose, sometimes paniculate, racemose, or spicate, with or without involucre; peduncle short or absent. Flowers bisexual or unisexual (plants sometimes dioecious), 4- or 5-merous. Calyx tube white, pink, or yellow, rarely mauve, campanulate, cylindric, or slightly funnel-shaped, exterior glabrous or pubescent; lobes 4 or 5, erect or spreading, alternately longer and shorter. Petaloid appendages absent. Stamens twice as many as calyx lobes, in two series; filaments short or absent; anthers oblong, included; connectives indistinct. Disk absent or annular, cup-shaped, sometimes elongated on one side. Ovary usually sessile or slightly stipitate, ovoid, 1-loculed; style terminal, short; stigma capitate. Fruit a succulent berry or dry and leathery, sometimes enclosed by persistent calyx, sometimes naked, usually red or yellow. Seed testa crustaceous, endosperm scanty or absent; cotyledons fleshy.[39] [more]
Delphinium
Herbs, perennial, from fasciculate roots or rhizomes. Leaves basal and/or cauline, petiolate, petioles gradually to abruptly shorter on distal leaves; basal leaves usually larger than cauline; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade deeply palmately divided, round to pentagonal or reniform, margins entire or lobes apically crenate or lacerate, lobes of basal blades wider and fewer than those of cauline blades. Inflorescences terminal, 2-100(-more) -flowered racemes (occasionally branched, thus technically panicles), 5-40 cm or more; bracts subtending inflorescence branches; pedicels present or absent; bracteoles (on pedicels) subopposite-subalternate, not forming involucre. Flowers bisexual, bilaterally symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit, 5; upper sepal 1, spurred, 8-24 mm; lateral sepals 2, ± ovate to elliptic, 8-18 mm; lower sepals 2, similar to lateral sepals; upper petals 2, spurred, enclosed in upper sepal, nectary inside tip of spur; lower petals 2, plane, ± ovate, ± 2-lobed, clawed, 2-12 mm, nectary absent; stamens 25-40; filaments with base expanded; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils 3(-5), simple; ovules 8-20 per pistil; style present. Fruits follicles, aggregate, sessile, ± curved-cylindric, sides prominently veined or not; beak terminal, straight, 2-4 mm. Seeds dark brown to black (often appearing white because of air in seed coat cells), rectangular to pyramidal, often ± rough surfaced. x = 8.[40] [more]
Dietes
Dietes is a of rhizomatous plants of the family Iridaceae. Common names include Fortnight lily, African iris, Morea or Moraea iris, Japanese iris and Butterfly iris, each of which may be used differently in different regions for one or more of the four species within the genus. [more]
Dimorphanthera
Dionysia
Caespitose, cushion or dense tufted semishrubs, scapose or escapose. Branches covered with the persistent remains of the leaves. Leaves imbricate, simple, revolute or involute, entire or denticulate, farinose or efarinose (farina whitish or yellow), often glandular-stipitate. Flowers 5-merous, heterostylous, yellow, pink or violet, umbellate or in superposed verticels or solitary. Bracts small, large and foliaceous in the scapose species. Calyx 1/2 to 2/3 rd-partite. Corolla much exceeding the calyx, tubular; limb 5-lobed, entire or slightly 2-lobed. Stamens epipetalous, sub-sessile; filaments attached near the middle (in pin-eyed flowers) or near the throat. Ovules few. Style slender, stigma capitate. Capsule dehiscing by 5 valves. Seeds small, angled, minutely vesiculose, up to 35 in number.[41] [more]
Dioscorea
Herbs twining. Rootstock rhizomatous or tuberous, variable in color, shape, chemical constituents, and depth in ground. Bulblets axillary or absent. Leaves alternate or opposite, petiolate, simple or palmately compound, basal veins 3--9. Flowers unisexual (plants dioecious, rarely monoecious), arranged spirally in axillary, usually elongate spikes or racemes, or in small cymules in ± spikelike thyrses, these often several together, sometimes gathered into a terminal or axillary panicle by reduction of subtending leaves. Male flowers: stamens 6, 3 sometimes reduced to staminodes or absent. Female spikes 3.5--10 cm, few flowered. Female flowers: staminodes 3, 6, or absent. Capsule 3-winged, dehiscent apically at maturity. Seeds with a membranous wing.[42] [more]
Dolichothele
The Mammillaria is one of the largest in the cactus family (Cactaceae), with currently 171 known species and varieties recognized[citation needed]. Most of the mammillarias are native to Mexico, but some come from the southwest USA, the Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala and Honduras. [more]
Drapetes
Dryocopus
Dryocopus is a genus of large powerful , typically 35-45 cm in length. It has representatives in North and South America, Europe and Asia; some South American species are endangered. It was believed to be closely related to the American genus Campephilus, but it is part of an entirely different lineage of woodpeckers altogether (Benz et al., 2006) [more]
Dynaspidiotus
Echeveria
Elaeocarpus
Trees or rarely shrubs. Leaves alternate or spirally arranged; stipules linear or rarely leaflike, caducous, rarely persistent; petiole usually long and swollen at both ends; leaf blade margin serrate or entire, pinnately veined. Inflorescence axillary, racemose. Flowers bisexual, 4- or 5-merous. Sepals 4 or 5, valvate, abaxially usually pubescent. Petals 4 or 5, white, free, margin laciniate, rarely entire or lobed. Stamens 8 to numerous; filaments short; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing from apical slits, with awn or hairs at tip. Disk usually glandularly 5-10-lobed, rarely circular. Ovary superior, 2-5(-7) -loculed; ovules 2-12 per locule; style linear or subulate. Fruit a drupe, 1(or 5) -loculed; endocarp hard, bony, surface usually lacunose. Seeds usually 1 per locule, with fleshy endosperm; cotyledons thin; embryo straight or curved.[43] [more]
Elettariopsis
Herbs perennial, to 1 m tall. Rhizomes creeping, slender, bearing pseudostems at intervals. Leaves 1--8; ligule entire or 2-lobed; petiole erect, long; leaf blade ovate, lanceolate, elliptic, or oblong. Inflorescences arising from base of pseudostems, with flowers spaced along rachis or sometimes in an erect, dense head; rachis prostrate or erect, simple or branched; bracts 1- or 2-flowered; bracteoles open, not tubular. Calyx white or pinkish, tubular, apex 2- or 3-toothed. Corolla tube longer than calyx, slender; lobes 3, ovate-oblong or elliptic. Lateral staminodes absent or very short. Filament short and broad; connective appendage ± quadrate, lateral lobes not spreading. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules numerous per locule. Stigma obconical, ciliate. Stylodes 2, slender. Capsule globose, glabrous.[44] [more]
Elymus
Plants perennial, usually tufted, usually without, rarely with, rhizomes. Culms usually erect. Leaf sheath of cauline leaves split almost to base; auricles present or absent; leaf blade flat or rolled. Spike erect to nodding. Spikelets 1 or 2(4) per node, sessile, rarely very shortly pedicellate, appressed to rachis, clearly laterally compressed, usually all similar, with 210 or more florets; rachis tough. Glumes opposite or side-by-side, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, firmly membranous to leathery, 19(11) -veined, not keeled, apex obtuse to shortly awned; veins ± raised. Lemma lanceolate-oblong, rounded abaxially, 5-veined, ± pubescent, apex obtuse or acute to awned, rarely toothed; veins connivent at apex; awn erect or reflexed. Palea shorter than or equaling lemma, apex retuse, subrounded, or acute. Caryopsis usually adherent to lemma and palea. x = 7.[45] [more]
Epigeneium
Eremurus
Herbs perennial, with vertical, short, stout rhizome, surrounded at neck by leaf bases and sometimes also fibers from old, disintegrated leaf bases. Roots numerous, long, thickened, fleshy. Leaves several, all basal, tufted, linear. Scape simple, erect, exceeding leaves, with sterile bracts distally and a terminal raceme. Raceme usually densely many flowered, usually elongate in fruit; bracts membranous, margin often minutely serrulate, fimbriate, or ciliate, apex often long filiform acuminate. Flowers bisexual, 1 per bract axil, pedicellate; pedicel articulate or not. Perianth campanulate, tubular, or cupular; segments 6, free or connate at base, with 1, 3, or 5 veins. Stamens 6, often exserted; filaments filiform or dilated toward base; anthers dorsifixed near base, base with 2 lobes to 0.5 mm. Ovary 3-loculed; seeds several per locule. Style filiform, long, often conspicuously persistent in fruit; stigma very small. Fruit a capsule, globose or subglobose, loculicidal. Seeds irregularly 3-angled, sometimes winged along angles.[46] [more]
Eriolobus
Erodium
Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves lobed or pinnatisect, longer than broad, stipulate. Flowers in cincinnal umbels, rarely solitary or 2. Involucral bracts 2 or more, united or free. Sepals and petals Fertile stamens 5, alternating with 5 staminodes. Ovary 5-lobed, long beaked in fruit. Beak plumose or bristly within on dehiscence. The stylar axis usually spirally twisted below. Mericarps with 2 apical pits.[47] [more]
Eucalyptus
Trees or shrubs. Bark smooth, fibrous, stringy, or tessellated. Leaves usually polymorphic with different juvenile and mature forms and sometimes with intermediate forms. Juvenile leaves opposite, 3 to several pairs, shortly petiolate or sessile; leaf blade often glaucous or with glandular trichomes; juvenile foliage sometimes persisting throughout life of plant. Mature leaves alternate, petiolate; leaf blade usually leathery, secondary veins numerous, with intramarginal veins. Inflorescences axillary or clustered into terminal or axillary panicles, consisting of umbelliform condensed dichasia. Flowers bisexual. Hypanthium campanulate, obconic, or semiglobose, stipitate or not, apex usually truncate. Sepals rarely distinct. Petals connate, either adnate to sepals into a 1-layered calyptra or not adnate and then with connate sepals forming a 2-layered calyptra; calyptra deciduous at anthesis. Stamens numerous, usually distinct, in several whorls with outer whorl usually sterile; anthers 2-celled, parallel or oblique, elliptic, ovate, cordate, or bifurcate, dehiscing longitudinally or occasionally poricidally. Ovary adnate to hypanthium, 2-7-loculed; ovules numerous. Style persistent. Whole or most of capsule included in expanded hypanthium; disk often well developed; valves exserted from hypanthium, equaling hypanthium rim, or included in hypanthium. Seeds numerous, many sterile and undeveloped, developed seeds ovate or angular; testa rigid, sometimes developed into wings.[48] [more]
Euonymus
Trees or shrubs, the latter sometimes scandent. Leaves oppsite; stipules caducous. Flowers bisexual, 4-5-merous. Calyx flat or recurved. Disc broad, fleshy, 4-5-lobed. Petals 4-5, rounded, spreading, often with coloured veins. Stamens 4-5, inserted on the disc. Ovary sunken in the disc; style short. Fruit a capsule, 3-5-lobed, angled or winged, rarely echinate, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds 1-3 in each cell, enclosed in a fleshy aril.[49] [more]
Eurya
Shrubs, small trees, or rarely large trees, evergreen, dioecious. Current year branchlets terete or 2- or 4-ribbed; winter buds exposed. Leaves distichous; leaf blade margin usually serrulate. Flowers axillary or congested on leafless branchlets, solitary to several in a cluster, small, pedicellate. Bracteoles 2, close to sepals, alternate. Sepals 5, persistent, imbricate, unequal. Petals 5, white or yellowish, basally slightly connate. Male flowers: stamens 5-35, in 1 whorl; filaments linear, glabrous, free or adnate to base of petals; anthers ovate-oblong to oblong, basifixed, 2-loculed, sometimes locellate (constricted at several places along anther length), connective slightly exserted; pistillode conspicuous. Female flowers: stamens usually absent or sometimes present as staminodes; ovary superior, 2-5-loculed with 3-60 ovules per locule, placentation axile; style 2-5,