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Sedoideae

(Subfamily)

Overview

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A Subfamily in the Kingdom Plantae.

Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Subfamily Sedoideae is a member of the Family Crassulaceae. Here is the complete "parentage" of Sedoideae:

The Subfamily Sedoideae is further organized into finer groupings including:

Genera

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Abies

Trees evergreen, crown usually spirelike to conic, sometimes flat to round topped in age. Bark initially thin, smooth, bearing resin blisters, in age furrowed and/or flaking in plates. Branches whorled, irregular internodal branches occasionally produced by epicormic sprouting (growing from a dormant bud) ; short (spur) shoots absent; leaf scars prominent, ± circular to broadly elliptic, flush with twig surface, slightly depressed, or slightly raised evenly all around. Buds ovate or oblong, resinous or not, apex rounded or pointed. Leaves borne singly, persisting 5 or more years, spirally arranged but often proximally twisted so as to appear either 1-ranked (pointing up like toothbrush bristles) or 2-ranked, sessile, typically constricted and often twisted above the somewhat broadened base, sheath absent; leaves on vegetative branches flattened, frequently grooved adaxially, usually notched to rounded at apex; leaves on fertile branches sometimes appearing 4-sided, upright, sharp-pointed to rounded at apex; resin canals 2. Cones borne on year-old twigs. Pollen cones grouped, ovate or oblong-cylindric, leaving gall-like protuberances after falling, yellow to red, green, blue, or purple. Seed cones maturing in 1 season, erect, ovoid to oblong-cylindric or cylindric, not falling whole but scale by scale, cone axis persisting as an erect "spike" on branch; scales shed individually, fan-shaped, lacking apophysis and umbo; bracts included to exserted. Seeds winged, the wing-seed juncture bearing resin sac; cotyledons 4--10. x =12.[1] [more]

Abutilon

Herbs, subshrubs, shrubs, or small trees. Stipules usually caducous; leaf blade usually entire (lobed in A. pictum), palmately veined, base cordate, margin crenate or serrate. Flowers axillary or subterminal, solitary, paired or in small cymes, often aggregated into terminal panicles. Epicalyx absent. Calyx campanulate, lobes 5. Corolla mostly yellow or orange (red in A. roseum), often with dark center, campanulate to wheel-shaped, rarely ± tubular (A. pictum) ; petals 5, basally connate and adnate to filament tube. Anthers many, clustered at filament tube apex. Ovary (5-) 7-20-loculed; ovules 2-9 per carpel; style branches as many as carpels. Fruit a schizocarp, often blackish when mature, subglobose to hemispherical; mericarps (5-) 7-20, eventually dehiscent, apex rounded or acute, sometimes 2-awned, pericarp leathery. Seeds reniform, glabrous or slightly pubescent.[2] [more]

Acaena

Acaena is a genus of about one hundred species of herbs and subshrubs in the Rosaceae, native mainly to the Southern Hemisphere, notably New Zealand, Australia and South America, but with a few species extending into the Northern Hemisphere, north to Hawaii (A. exigua) and California (A. pinnatifida). [more]

Acanthus

Acer

[more]

Achimenes

Achimenes is a of about 25 species of tropical and subtropical rhizomatous perennial herbs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae. They have a multitude of common names such as Magic Flowers, Widow's Tears, Cupid's Bower, or Hot Water Plant. The plant's name comes from the Greek word meaning "suffer from cold." [more]

Aeonium

Aeonium is a of about 35 species of succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae. [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]

Aeranthes

Aeranthes, abbreviated Aerth in horticultural trade, is an genus with 47 species, mostly from shady, tropical humid forests in Zimbabwe, Madagascar and islands in the Western Indian Ocean. The name "aeranthes" means 'aerial flower', because it seems to float in the air. [more]

Aerides

Aerides or the Cat's-tail Orchid or the Fox Brush Orchid, is a genus belonging to the Orchid family () (subfamily Epidendroideae, tribe Vandeae, subtribe Aeridinae). This genus is abbreviated Aer in horticultural trade. [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]

Agropyron

Plants perennial, with creeping rhizomes or culms tufted. Culms erect or geniculate at base. Sheaths of vegetative shoots often closed almost throughout their length, usually with lanceolate auricles; leaf blade flat or involute. Spike linear-oblong or ovoid; rachis tough, pubescent. Spikelets 1 per node, divergently or pectinately arranged, sessile, laterally compressed, with 3-10 florets; rachilla disarticulating above glumes and between florets. Glumes linear to narrowly ovate, hardened, 1-5-veined, 1-keeled to base, tapering to an acuminate or shortly awned tip in which veins converge. Lemma lanceolate-oblong, leathery, 5-7-veined, glabrous or pilose, apex acute or with straight awn; midvein slightly keeled; callus very short. Palea ± equaling lemma, pilose along keels, rarely smooth and glabrous, apex usually 2-toothed. Lodicules ciliate at margin. Caryopsis somewhat adherent to lemma and palea. x = 7.[3] [more]

Agrostis

Annuals or perennials, tufted or sometimes with rhizomes or stolons. Leaf blades linear to filiform or setaceous, flat or rolled; ligule membranous. Inflorescence a panicle, open to contracted or spikelike. Spikelets with 1 floret, small, often gaping, without rachilla extension; rachilla disarticulating above glumes; glumes persistent, longer than floret, subequal or lower a little longer, membranous, 1-veined, apex subacute to acuminate; floret callus glabrous or shortly pilose; lemma oblong to elliptic, thinner than glumes, often hyaline, 5-veined, rounded on back, glabrous or hairy, lateral veins sometimes excurrent, awnless or awned from back, apex truncate or toothed; awn usually geniculate, sometimes weakly so or straight when short; palea shorter than lemma, sometimes very small. Stamens 3. Caryopsis oblong, sulcate on ventral side.[4] [more]

Aichryson

Aichryson is a of about 15 species of succulent, subtropical plants, mostly native to the Canary Islands, with a few in the Azores, Madeira and Morocco, and one in Portugal. [more]

Ajuga

Plants annual, biennial or perennial, herbaceous, rarely shrubs. Leaves simple; leaf blade papery, margin dentate to incised, rarely subentire. Verticillasters 2- to many flowered, in false spikes; floral leaves similar to stem leaves or gradually reduced to bracts, rarely dissimilar, larger than stem leaves. Flowers subsessile. Calyx ovoid to globose, campanulate to funnelform, 10-veined, sometimes with inconspicuous accessory veins; teeth 5, slightly irregular. Corolla purple to blue, rarely yellow or white, 2-lipped, often persistent in fruit; tube straight to slightly curved, base slightly bent/swollen; throat slightly dilated, villous annulate, rarely glabrous inside; upper lip straight, entire to 2-lobed; lower lip elongate, 3-lobed, with middle lobe obcordate to nearly flabellate and lateral lobes oblong. Stamens 4, didynamous, exserted from upper lip, involute in bud, anterior 2 longer; filaments straight to slightly curved; anther cells 2, apically confluent. Style subequally 2-cleft, lobes subulate. Nutlets obovoid, triquetrous, netted on back, lateral-ventral side with an areole 1/2-2/3 its length, with an elaiosome.[5] [more]

Alcea

Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, usually erect, unbranched, most parts stellate pubescent, sometimes mixed with long simple hairs. Leaves long petiolate; leaf blade ovate to suborbicular, angled, weakly lobed, or deeply palmatipartite, margin crenate or dentate, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, often arranged into terminal racemes. Epicalyx lobes 6 or 7, basally connate. Calyx 5-lobed, ± pubescent. Petals pink, white, purple, or yellow, usually more than 3 cm wide, apex notched. Staminal column glabrous with anthers clustered at apex; anthers yellow and compact. Ovary 15- or more loculed; ovules 1 per locule, erect; styles as many as locules; stigmas decurrent, filiform. Fruit a schizocarp, disk-shaped, fruit axis as long as or shorter than carpels; mericarps more than 15, laterally compressed and circular with a prominent ventral notch, glabrous or pubescent, 2-celled, proximal cell 1-seeded, distal cell sterile. Seed glabrous or pustulose.[6] [more]

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.[7] [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.[8] [more]

Alocasia

Characters as those of Colocasia but with the following differences: Plants with well developed elongated rootstocks, basal lobes of leaves acute and basal placentation. Ovules and seeds few.[9] [more]

Aloe

Plants succulent, shrubby or arborescent, scapose. Stems erect, clambering or ascending, branched or not. Leaves succulent, crowded, often rosulate or distichous; blade margins spiny-toothed or entire. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, paniculate to more often racemose, dense, bracteate. Flowers usually nodding; perianth red to yellow; tepals connate basally to almost entirely into tube; stamens 3 or 6; style slender; pedicel not articulate. Capsules papery to woody. x = 7.[10] [more]

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.[11] [more]

Alyssum

Herbs annual, biennial, perennial, or rarely subshrubs. Trichomes stellate, stalked or sessile, with 2-6 minute basal branches from which originate up to 30, simple or branched rays, sometimes trichomes lepidote, rarely mixed with simple and forked. Stems erect or decumbent, simple or branched. Basal leaves petiolate or sessile, rosulate or not rosulate, simple, entire. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, cuneate or attenuate, not auriculate, entire. Racemes few to many flowered, dense or lax, ebracteate, corymbose or in panicles, elongated or not in fruit. Fruiting pedicels ascending, divaricate, or reflexed. Sepals ovate or oblong, base of lateral pair not saccate. Petals yellow, white, or rarely pink; blade suborbicular, obovate, or spatulate, apex obtuse or emarginate, glabrous or pubescent outside. Stamens 6, tetradynamous; filaments wingless or uni- or bilaterally winged, appendaged or not, toothed or toothless; anthers ovate or oblong, apiculate or not at apex. Nectar glands 4, lateral, 1 on each side of lateral stamen; median glands absent. Ovules 1 or 2(or 4-8) per ovary; placentation apical or parietal. Fruit dehiscent silicles, oblong, ovate, obovate, elliptic, obcordate, or rarely globose, strongly latiseptate or rarely inflated, sessile; valves veinless, pubescent or glabrous, smooth; replum rounded; septum complete, membranous, translucent, veinless; style distinct; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds biseriate, winged or wingless, orbicular or ovate, flattened; seed coat smooth or minutely reticulate, mucilaginous or not when wetted; cotyledons accumbent or incumbent.[12] [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.[13] [more]

Anomatheca

[more]

Anthericum

Anthericum is a of about 300 species, rhizomatous perennial plants in the family Agavaceae. The species have rhizomatous or tuberous roots, long narrow leaves and branched stems carrying starry white flowers. The members of this genus occurs mainly in the tropical and southern Africa and Madagascar, but also represented in Europe. [more]

Arabis

Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, rarely subshrubs or shrubs. Trichomes stellate, dendritic, or stalked forked, sometimes mixed with fewer simple ones, rarely primarily simple. Stems simple or branched apically. Basal leaves petiolate, rosulate, simple, often entire, sometimes dentate, rarely lyrate-pinnatifid. Cauline leaves sessile and auriculate, sagittate, or amplexicaul, very rarely petiolate, entire or dentate. Racemes ebracteate or rarely bracteate throughout or only basally, sometimes in panicles, elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels erect, ascending, divaricate, or reflexed. Sepals ovate or oblong, base of lateral pair saccate or not, margin membranous. Petals white, pink, or purple; blade spatulate, oblong, or oblanceolate, rarely obovate, apex obtuse or emarginate; claw shorter than sepals. Stamens 6, tetradynamous; filaments usually not dilated at base; anthers ovate, oblong, or linear, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands confluent, subtending bases of all stamens; median glands sometimes toothlike and free, rarely absent; lateral glands semiannular or annular. Ovules 12-110 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques, linear, latiseptate, sessile or rarely shortly stipitate; valves papery, with an obscure or prominent midvein, smooth or torulose; replum rounded; septum complete, membranous, translucent, veinless; style obsolete or distinct; stigma capitate, entire or slightly 2-lobed. Seeds uniseriate or biseriate, winged or margined, oblong or orbicular, flattened; seed coat smooth or minutely reticulate, not mucilaginous when wetted; cotyledons accumbent.[14] [more]

Arctanthemum

Perennials, (2.5-) 5-40 cm (taller in fruit, rhizomatous). Stems 1 (per rosette), ascending, usually simple, sometimes branched distally, glabrous or ± woolly (hairs basifixed). Leaves (not marcescent) basal and cauline; alternate; petiolate or sessile (distal) ; blades (± fleshy) fan-shaped, cuneate, or spatulate to narrowly lanceolate (distally), usually pinnati-palmately lobed (lobes 3-7), ultimate margins coarsely crenate, dentate (at apices of lobes), or entire (distally), faces ± woolly, glabrescent. Heads radiate, borne singly or in 2s or 3s. Involucres patelliform to hemispheric, 13-29 mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, (22-) 25-34(-44) in 3(-4) series, distinct, lanceolate to oblong, unequal, margins and apices (hyaline and colorless or brownish) scarious. Receptacles dome-shaped (glabrous), epaleate. Ray florets (9-) 14-25(-30), pistillate, fertile; corollas white, laminae lance-elliptic or elliptic to oblong or oblong-lanceolate. Disc florets 140-360+, bisexual, fertile; corollas yellow, tubes broadly cylindric, throats campanulate, lobes 5, deltate (without resin sacs). Cypselae cylindro-obconic, ribs 5-8(-10), faces glabrous, usually gland-dotted (pericarps without myxogenic cells or resin sacs; embryo sac development monosporic) ; pappi 0. x = 9.[15] [more]

Argina

Argina is a genus of moth in the family . [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.[16] [more]

Aristolochia

Herbs or lianas, perennial. Stems erect, twining, or procumbent. Leaves alternate, 2-ranked (evident on young growth, becoming obscure with age in some species) ; true stipules absent; pseudostipules absent [present]; petiole sometimes very short. Leaf blade membranous to leathery. Inflorescences on new growth or on older stems, axillary, racemes or solitary flowers; bracts present. Flowers: calyx usually mixture of purple, brown, green, or red, bilaterally symmetric, tubular, usually bent or curved, 1- or 3-lobed, not fleshy, base with utricle (basal, inflated portion of calyx surrounding or containing gynostemium) ; tube narrowed, sometimes extended proximally as cylindric syrinx (tubular or ringlike structure at juncture of tube and utricle, projecting into utricle cavity) and distally as annulus (circular flange at juncture of tube and limb) on limb; corolla absent; stamens 5-6, adnate to styles and stigmas, forming gynostemium; ovary inferior, 3-, 5-, or 6-locular; styles 3, 5, or 6, connate in column. Capsule dry, dehiscent. Seeds flattened or rounded, sometimes winged. x = 6, 7, 8.[17] [more]

Asphodelus

Herbs, annual or perennial [or biennial], scapose, from swollen rhizomes. Leaves numerous, basal; blade linear, cylindrical [or flat], base membranous, sheathing, margins entire. Scape hollow [or solid]. Inflorescences racemose or paniculate, many-flowered, bracteate; bracts persistent, narrowly lanceolate, scarious. Flowers: tepals 6, erect to spreading, distinct or barely connate basally, equal, each with single prominent vein; stamens 6, distinct, subequal [or equal], shorter than tepals; filaments expanded at base; anthers dorsifixed; ovary 3-locular, ovules 1 or 2 per locule; septal nectaries present; style 1; stigma weakly 3-lobed; pedicel articulate. Fruits capsular, globose, hard, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds 3 or 6, black, angled [or winged]. x = 13, 14.[18] [more]

Asplenium

Roots fibrous, not proliferous or proliferous and producing tiny plantlets. Stems erect, rarely long-creeping; scales basally attached, clathrate. Petioles not articulate. Blades 1--4-pinnate, of diverse size and shape. Indusia present. x = 36.[19] [more]

Astilbe

erbs perennial. Rhizomes thick. Stems brown paleaceous hairy or long pilose. Leaves alternate, long petiolate, 2-4 × ternately compound, rarely simple; stipules membranous; leaflets lanceolate, ovate, or broadly ovate to elliptic, margin dentate. Inflorescence a terminal panicle, bracteate. Flowers white, lilac, or purple, bisexual or unisexual, rarely plants polygamous or dioecious. Sepals (4 or) 5. Petals usually 1-5, sometimes more or absent. Stamens usually (5 or) 8-10. Carpels 2(or 3), ± connate or free; ovary subsuperior or semi-inferior, 2(or 3) -loculed with axile placentation or 1-loculed with marginal placentation; ovules many. Fruit a capsule or follicle. Seeds small.[20] [more]

Aucuba

Trees or shrubs, 1 10 m tall; branches with conspicuous leaf scars, often pubescent when young, glabrous when old. Leaf blade usually green or sometimes variegated with yellow, yellowish, or white spots, variable, from lanceolate to obcordate, pubescent or glabrous, veins raised abaxially, often impressed adaxially, lateral veins usually connected before reaching margin, extending to apex of marginal teeth, margin serrate, glandular serrate, or dentate, rarely entire. Staminate inflorescences (2 ) 7 15 cm, paniculate or racemose-paniculate, pyramidal, or cylindrical. Carpellate inflorescences panicles, shorter, 1 5 cm. Flowers: calyx lobes minute, triangular or slightly orbicular; petals free, valvate, purplish red, yellow, or green, oblong or ovate, apex acuminate or caudate. Staminate flowers: filaments awl-shaped; anthers dorsifixed, rarely versatile, locules 2, rarely locule 1, dehiscing by longitudinal slits; floral disk fleshy, slightly 4-lobed. Carpellate flowers; sepals and petals articulate at base of ovary, subtended by 1 or 2 bracteoles. Fruit cylindrical or ovoid. 2n = 16, 32.[21] [more]

Begonia

Perennial succulent herbs, rarely subshrubs. Stem erect, frequently rhizomatous, or plants tuberous and either acaulescent or shortly stemmed, rarely lianoid or climbing with adventitious roots, or stoloniferous. Leaves simple, rarely palmately compound, alternate or all basal; blade often oblique and asymmetric, rarely symmetric, margin often irregularly serrate and divided, occasionally entire, venation usually palmate; petiole long, weak; stipules membranous, usually deciduous. Flowers unisexual, plants monoecious, rarely dioecious, (1 or) 2-4 to several, rarely numerous, in dichotomous cymes, sometimes in panicle, with pedicels and bracts. Staminate flower: tepals 2 or 4 and decussate, usually outer ones larger, inner ones smaller; stamens usually numerous; filaments free or connate at base; anthers 2-celled, apical or lateral; connectives extended at apex, sometimes apiculate. Pistillate flower: tepals 2-5(-10) ; pistil composed of 2-5(-7) carpels; ovary inferior, 1-3(-7) -loculed; placentae axile or parietal; styles 2 or 3(or more), free or fused at base, forked once or more; stigma turgid, spirally twisted-tortuous or U-shaped, capitate or reniform, setose-papillose. Capsule dry, sometimes berrylike, unequally or subequally 3-winged, rarely wingless and 3- or 4-horned; seeds very numerous, pale brown, oblong, minute, testa reticulate.[22] [more]

Bensoniella

Bensoniella is a monotypic genus of plants in the containing the single species Bensoniella oregona (also, B. oregana), which is known by the common name Oregon bensoniella, or simply bensoniella. This plant is endemic to the Klamath Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon. This is a plant of the wet forest understory and meadows above 1000 meters in elevation. It is a perennial herb which grows from a rhizome and bears rounded to heart-shaped lobed leaves with woolly petioles and tall, thin racemes of flowers. Each flower is white with bright yellow-pink anthers. The plant produces capsules of abundant seeds but also reproduces vegetatively. When it does reproduce sexually, it often self-pollinates. Bensoniella not endangered but it is a species of some concern for several reasons, including lack of genetic diversity in part due to its habit of self-pollination and asexual reproduction, its relatively narrow tolerance of habitats, its small range of distribution, habitat destruction due to logging, grazing, and road-building, and erosion. The plant was first discovered and named by Lilla Leach. [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.[23] [more]

Betula

Trees or shrubs, to 30 m; trunks often several, branching excurrent, becoming deliquescent. Bark of trunks and branches dark brown to chalky white, smooth, often exfoliating; lenticels dark, prominent, sometimes horizontally expanded. Wood nearly white to reddish brown, light and soft to moderately heavy and hard, texture fine. Branches, branchlets, and twigs nearly 2-ranked; young twigs differentiated into long and short shoots, sometimes with taste and odor of wintergreen. Winter buds sessile, slender, terete, apex acute; scales several, imbricate, smooth. Leaves mostly on short shoots, nearly 2-ranked. Leaf blade ovate to deltate, elliptic, or nearly orbiculate, 0.5--10(--14) × 0.5--8 cm, thin, margins doubly serrate or serrate (or crenate to shallowly round-lobed in dwarf northern species) ; surfaces glabrous to tomentose, sometimes abaxially resinous-glandular. Inflorescences: staminate catkins mostly terminal on branchlets, solitary or in small racemose clusters, formed previous growing season and often exposed during winter, expanding with leaves; pistillate catkins proximal to staminate catkins, mostly solitary, erect, ovoid to cylindric, firm; scales and flowers crowded, enclosed within buds during winter, expanding with leaves. Staminate flowers in catkins 3 per scale; stamens (1--) 2--3(--4), filaments divided below anthers, nearly to base. Pistillate flowers (1--) 3 per scale. Infructescences erect or pendulous; scales usually deciduous with release of fruits (although persisting into winter in a few species), (1--) 3-lobed, thickened or leathery but not woody. Fruits samaras, lateral wings 2, moderately wide to broad, membranaceous. x = 14.[24] [more]

Billbergia

Billbergia is a of the botanical family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Bromelioideae. The genus is named for the Swedish botanist, zoologist, and anatomist Gustaf Johan Billberg. Billbergia primarily occur in Brazil but individual specie are represented from Mexico through tropical South America. [more]

Bloomeria

Herbs, perennial, scapose, from fibrous-coated corms. Leaves 1-8, basal; blade linear-lanceolate, keeled, margins entire. Scape slender, cylindrical, rigid. Inflorescences umbellate, open, 10-35-flowered, bracteate; bracts 2-4, scarious, membranous, not enclosing flower buds. Flowers: tepals 6, persistent, widely spreading, distinct or barely connate at base, golden yellow, striped brownish or green, nearly equal, oblong-linear, subrotate at anthesis; stamens 6, epitepalous, slightly shorter than and inserted at base of tepals; filaments filiform distally, dilated basally, ca. 6 mm, dilated bases sometimes connate into nectariferous cup, cup sometimes having basal filament appendages arising from apex; anthers subbasifixed, versatile; pistil 3-carpellate; ovary superior, sessile, 3-locular, ovules anatropous, several per locule; style persistent, splitting with capsule, filiform or clavate, 5 mm; stigma 3-lobed; pedicel long, erect, ray-like, base and apex articulate. Fruits sessile, capsular, 3-angled, subglobose, 5-6 mm, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, angular, subovoid, wrinkled, coat with crust. x = 9 (except for B. clevelandii x = 14).[25] [more]

Bowkeria

[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.[26] [more]

Buddleja

Shrubs, less often trees, lianas, or suffrutescent herbs. Branches terete, 4-angled, or 4-winged. Leaves opposite, rarely alternate; stipules usually leafy, suborbicular and auriculate or reduced to a transverse line; petiole often short; leaf blade margin entire, crenate, or dentate. Inflorescences terminal and/or axillary, usually many-flowered; bracts mostly leafy; bracteoles resembling sepals. Flowers 4-merous, bisexual or unisexual. Calyx campanulate or subcampanulate, less often cup-shaped or obconical, tube usually longer than lobes. Corolla campanulate, cup-shaped, salverform, or funnel-shaped; tube cylindrical, straight to curved, usually longer than lobes; lobes imbricate, rarely valvate. Stamens inserted on corolla tube, usually included, alternating with corolla lobes; filaments shorter to longer than anthers; anthers introrse, 2-locular, base usually deeply cordate. Ovary 2(--4) -locular, with several to many ovules per locule. Style short to long; stigma often large, clavate, capitate, or less often 2-lobed. Fruit a septicidally 2-valved capsule or in China only Buddleja madagascariensis a berry, many-seeded. Seeds small, often winged; endosperm fleshy; embryo straight.[27] [more]

Calceolaria

Calceolaria , also called Lady's purse, Slipper flower and Pocketbook flower, or Slipperwort, is a genus of plants in the Calceolariaceae family, sometimes classified in Scrophulariaceae by some authors. This genus consists of about 388 species of shrubs, lianas and herbs, and the geographic range extends from Patagonia to central Mexico, with its distribution centre in Andean region. Calceolaria in Latin means shoemaker. [more]

Calliergon

[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.[28] [more]

Cardamine

Herbs annual, biennial, or rhizomatous or tuberous perennial. Trichomes absent or simple. Stems erect or prostrate, leafy or rarely leafless and plant scapose. Basal leaves petiolate, rosulate or not, simple and entire, toothed, or 1-3-pinnatisect, or palmately lobed, sometimes trifoliolate, pinnately, palmately, or bipinnately compound. Cauline leaves alternate, (rarely opposite or whorled), simple or compound as basal leaves, petiolate or sessile and base cuneate, attenuate, auriculate, or sagittate, margin entire, dentate, or variously lobed. Racemes ebracteate or rarely bracteate throughout or only basally, corymbose or in panicles, elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels slender or thickened, erect, divaricate, or reflexed. Sepals ovate or oblong, base of lateral pair saccate or not, margin often membranous. Petals white, pink, purple, or violet, never yellow, rarely absent; blade obovate, spatulate, oblong, or oblanceolate, apex obtuse or emarginate; claw absent or strongly differentiated from blade, longer or shorter than sepals. Stamens 6 and tetradynamous, rarely 4 and equal in length; anthers ovate, oblong, or linear, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands confluent and subtending bases of all stamens; median glands 2 or rarely 4 or absent; lateral glands annular or semiannular. Ovules 4-50 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques, linear or rarely narrowly oblong or narrowly lanceolate, latiseptate, sessile; valves papery, not veined, glabrous (or very rarely hairy), smooth or torulose, dehiscing elastically acropetally, spirally or circinately coiled; replum strongly flattened; septum complete, membranous, translucent; style distinct or rarely obsolete; stigma capitate, entire. Seeds uniseriate, wingless, rarely margined or winged, oblong or ovate, flattened; seed coat smooth, minutely reticulate, colliculate, or rugose; mucilaginous or not when wetted; cotyledons accumbent or very rarely incumbent.[29] [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.[30] [more]

Cautleya

Rhizomes very short; roots fascicled, thick, fleshy. Leaves petiolate or ± sessile; ligule at base of petiole; leaf blade oblong or lanceolate. Inflorescence a terminal spike; bracts colored, persistent, 1-flowered. Flowers yellow or orange. Calyx long tubular, split on 1 side. Corolla tube equaling or longer than calyx; lobes subequal; central one erect, narrow, concave; lateral ones connate to claw of labellum for about 1/2 their length. Lateral staminodes erect, petaloid. Labellum reflexed, broadly cuneate, apex emarginate to 2-cleft. Filament erect, short; anther locules linear, contiguous; connective forming a basal, forked appendage. Ovary globose, 3-loculed; ovules numerous per locule; placentation axile. Style linear; stigma turbinate, margin ciliate. Capsule globose, soon dehiscing to base with recurved valves exposing seeds on a columnar mass. Seeds red, gray, or black, angled; aril small or absent.[31] [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]

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.[32] [more]

Centaurea

Annuals, biennials, or perennials, 20-300 cm, glabrous or tomentose. Stems erect, ascending, or spreading, simple or branched. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; proximal blade margins often ± deeply lobed, (spiny in C. benedicta ), distal ± smaller, often entire, faces glabrous or ± tomentose, sometimes also villous, strigose, or puberulent, often glandular-punctate. Heads discoid, disciform, or radiant, borne singly or in corymbiform arrays. Involucres cylindric or ovoid to hemispheric . Phyllaries many in 6-many series, unequal, proximal part appressed, body margins entire. distal parts expanded into erect to spreading, usually ± dentate or fringed, linear to ovate appendages, spine. tipped or spineless. Receptacles flat, epaleate, bristly. Florets 10-many; outer usually sterile, corollas slender and inconspicuous to much expanded, ± bilateral; inner fertile, corollas white to blue, pink, purple, or yellow, bilateral or radial, often bent at junction of tubes and throats, lobes linear-oblong, acute; anther bases tailed, apical appendages oblong; style branches: fused portions with minutely hairy nodes, distinct portions minute. Cypselae ± barrel-shaped, ± compressed, smooth or ribbed, apices entire (denticulate in C. benedicta ), glabrous or with fine, 1-celled hairs, attachment scar. lateral (with or without elaiosomes) ; pappi 0 or ± persistent, of 1-3 series of smooth or minutely barbed, stiff bristles or narrow scales . x = 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15.[33] [more]

Chimonanthus

Chimonanthus (wintersweet) is a genus of in the family Calycanthaceae, endemic to China. The genus includes three to six species depending on taxonomic interpretation; three are accepted by the Draft Flora of China. The name means winter flower in Greek. [more]

Chimonobambusa

Shrubby bamboos, rarely subarborescent. Rhizomes leptomorph, with running underground stems. Culms usually diffuse, sometimes tillering (pluricaespitose), erect; internodes terete or 4-angled, often basally grooved above branches; nodes prominent to very prominent, basal nodes often with a ring of sparse or dense root thorns; sheath scars usually with a ring of pubescence or persistent base of culm sheath. Branches 3(-7 on upper culm), subequal, buds ovate-triangular, open at front, prophyll reduced. Culm sheaths deciduous and leathery, or sometimes persistent and papery; auricles minute or absent; blade reduced, to 1 cm, narrow. Leaves (1 or) 2-5 per ultimate branch; blade lanceolate, base cuneate. Inflorescence fully bracteate, weakly iterauctant, 1-3 single pseudospikelet racemes loosely fasciculate, subtended by gradually enlarged bracts. Spikelets several to many flowered, sessile. Rachilla disarticulating. Glumes usually 1-3, frequently one subtending a bud; lemma papery or membranous; palea membranous, 2-keeled, obtuse; lodicules 3, membranous. Stamens 3; filaments free. Ovary ellipsoid; style 1, short; stigmas 2 or 3, plumose. Fruit a nutlike caryopsis with a hardened pericarp. New shoots Apr-Nov.[34] [more]

Chlidanthus

[more]

Cistus

Citrofortunella

× Citrofortunella is the term for a group of plants that are a between plants of the genus Citrus with kumquats (genus or subgenus Fortunella). [more]

Clowesia

[more]

Columnea

Columnea is a of ca. 200 species of epiphytic herbs and shrubs in the flowering plant family Gesneriaceae, native to tropical America and the Caribbean. The tubular or oddly shaped flowers are usually large and brightly colored – usually red, yellow, or orange –, sometimes resembling a fish in shape. A common name is flying goldfish plants (see also the related Nematanthus) due to the unusual flower shape. [more]

Convallaria

Annuals (biennials, or perennials) [shrubs, subshrubs], (5) 20120 cm (sometimes rhizomatous). Leaves basal and/or cauline (mostly cauline at flowering), alternate; usually sessile; blade margins entire or ± dentate to serrate. Heads radiate [disciform or discoid], in corymbiform, racemiform, or paniculiform arrays. Involucres hemispheric to campanulate, [3-]5-10[20+] mm diam. Phyllaries persistent (reflexed in fruit), in (2-) 3-4+ series, unequal to subequal. Receptacles flat, smooth or minutely alveolate, epaleate. Ray florets (10-) 20-30[60+], pistillate, fertile; corollas yellow, laminae 1.52+ mm. Disc florets (9-) 40-100[150+]; corollas yellow, lobes 5. Cypselae ellipsoid (abruptly constricted distally; often glandular distally) ; pappi persistent, outer of basally connate, ± erose scales (usually forming cups), inner of distinct (fragile), barbellate or flattened bristles. x = 7, 9, 10.[35] [more]

Coprosma

Coprosma is a genus of about 90 species that are found in (45 spp), Hawaii (c. 20 spp) and in Borneo, Java, New Guinea, islands of the Pacific Ocean to Australia. Many species are small shrubs with tiny evergreen leaves, but a few are small trees and have much larger leaves. The flowers have insignificant petals and are wind-pollinated, with long anthers and stigmas. Natural hybrids are common. The fruit is a non-poisonous juicy berry, most often bright orange (but can be dark red or even light blue), containing two small seeds. It is said that coffee can be made from the seeds, Coprosma being related to the coffee plants. A notable feature (also found in other genera of the Rubiaceae) is that the leaves contain hollows in the axils of the veins; in these, and on the leaf stipules, nitrogen-fixing bacteria grow. [more]

Cordyline

Plants treelike or shrubby. Stems ± woody, usually few branched, with conspicuous leaf scars distally. Leaves crowded at apex of stems, petiolate (or sessile) ; petiole 10--30 cm, base amplexicaul; leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate to sword-shaped, veins essentially parallel but with lateral veins branching from midvein in proximal 1/2. Inflorescence arising from axils of distal leaves, usually paniculate, large, many branched. Flowers bisexual, solitary, usually tubular-campanulate or subcylindric; pedicel usually short, articulate at or near apex. Perianth with short tube; lobes in 2 whorls of 3. Stamens 6, inserted in tube or throat of perianth; anthers versatile. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules 2 to many per locule. Style slender; stigma capitate, small. Fruit a capsule, leathery, 1- to several seeded. Seeds black, coated with phytomelanin.[36] [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.[37] [more]

Corydalis

A genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [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.[38] [more]

Cotoneaster

Shrubs, rarely small trees, erect, decumbent, or prostrate, deciduous, semievergreen, or evergreen. Branchlets mostly terete, rarely slightly angulate, unarmed. Winter buds small; scales several, imbricate, exposed. Leaves alternate, simple, shortly petiolate; stipules caducous, usually subulate, small; margin of leaf blade entire, venation camptodromous. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, cymose or corymbose, sometimes flowers several fascicled or solitary. Hypanthium turbinate or campanulate, rarely cylindric, adnate to ovary. Sepals 5, persistent, short. Petals 5, erect or spreading, imbricate in bud, white, pink, or red. Stamens 10-20(-22), inserted in mouth of hypanthium. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, 2-5-loculed; carpels 2-5, connate abaxially, free adaxially; ovules 2 per carpel, erect; styles 2-5, free; stigmas dilated. Fruit a drupe-like pome, red, brownish red, or orange to black, with persistent, incurved, fleshy sepals, containing pyrenes; pyrenes (1 or) 2-5, bony, 1-seeded; seeds compressed; cotyledons plano-convex.[39] [more]

Cotula

Annuals or perennials, 2-25[-50+] cm (sometimes aromatic). Stems usually 1, erect or prostrate to decumbent or ascending (sometimes rooting at nodes), usually branched, glabrous or ± strigillose to villous (hairs mostly basifixed). Leaves usually mostly cauline [basal]; alternate [opposite]; petiolate or sessile; blades obovate or spatulate to lanceolate or linear, sometimes 1-3-pinnately [palmati-pinnately] lobed, ultimate margins entire or irregularly toothed, faces glabrous or ± strigillose to villous [lanate] (hairs mostly basifixed). Heads disciform [discoid or radiate], borne singly (peduncles sometimes dilated). Involucres broadly hemispheric to saucer-shaped, 3-12+[-15+] mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, 13-30+ in 2-3+ series, margins and apices (colorless, light to dark brown, or purplish) scarious. Receptacles flat to convex [conic], epaleate (sometimes ± covered with persistent stalks of florets). Ray florets 0 [5-8+, pistillate, fertile; corollas white] (peripheral pistillate florets 8-80+ in 1-3+ series; corollas usually none). Disc florets 12-200+[-600+], bisexual, fertile [functionally staminate]; corollas ochroleucous or yellow, tubes ± cylindric (bases sometimes adaxially saccate), throats abruptly ampliate, lobes (3-) 4, ± deltate (sometimes one larger than others, usually each with central resin canal). Cypselae obovoid to oblong, ob-compressed or -flattened, ribs 2, lateral, sometimes becoming wings, faces ± papillate (pericarps relatively thin, sometimes with myxogenic cells and/or 2 lateral resin sacs) ; pappi 0. x = 10.[40] [more]

Cotyledon

A cotyledon is a significant part of the within the seed of a plant. Upon germination, the cotyledon may become the embryonic first leaves of a seedling. The number of cotyledons present is one characteristic used by botanists to classify the flowering plants (angiosperms). Species with one cotyledon are called monocotyledonous (or, "monocots") and placed in the class Liliopsida. Plants with two embryonic leaves are termed dicotyledonous ("dicots") and placed in the class Magnoliopsida. [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.[41] [more]

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]

Cymbalaria

Cymbalaria is a genus of about 10 species of perennial plants previously treated in the family Scrophulariaceae, but recently shown by genetic research to be in the much enlarged family Plantaginaceae. [more]

Cyrtanthus

A Genus in the Kingdom Plantae. [more]

Dactylorhiza

Herbs, perennial, terrestrial, rather succulent, glabrous. Roots from base of stem fascicled tuberoids, usually palmately divided with 2-5 lobes, fleshy. Stems leafy. Leaves several, ascending to recurved, not enfolded around spike, with or without purplish spots; base sheathing in proximal leaves, distal leaves bractlike, not sheathing. Inflorescences terminal, spikes; floral bracts foliaceous, prominent. Flowers few to many, resupinate; dorsal sepal, sometimes lateral sepals, and petals connivent, forming hood distal to lip; petals ± obliquely dilated basally; lip 3-lobed, base spurred, margins occasionally entire, nectarless; pollinaria 2, each with 1 pollen mass; viscidia within single 2-lobed bursicle; stigma reniform or obcordate, concave with median ridge, hidden behind bursicle. Fruits capsules, ascending, ellipsoid.[42] [more]

Daphniphyllum

Daphniphyllum is a genus of in the family Daphniphyllaceae, including about 25 species, all evergreen shrubs and trees native to east and southeast Asia. In older classifications the genus was treated in the family Euphorbiaceae. [more]

Delosperma

Subshrubs [herbs, shrubs], perennial or rarely annual or biennial, usually succulent, sometimes hairy or prickly. Roots fibrous [tuberous]. Stems prostrate-creeping [erect, decumbent]. Leaves cauline, opposite, sessile; stipules absent; blade variable, slightly connate basally or distinct, broadly triangular to cylindric, linear, or rarely flat, finely papillate. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, flowers solitary or in cymes, pedicillate; bracts 2, leaflike. Flowers showy, tubular, 1.5-8 cm diam.; calyx lobes 5, green, linear, unequal; petals (often including petaloid staminodia) 60-100 in few series, distinct, free, white, yellow, or red; nectary glands 5, distinct or rarely connate; stamens ca. 100, inner stamens erect, whitish; pistil (4-) 5(-6) -carpellate; ovary inferior, (4-) 5(-6) -loculed, slightly convex; placentation parietal; style absent; stigmas (4-) 5(-6), subulate, sometimes caudate, apex acute, papillate. Fruits capsules, persistent, keels interior, expanding, usually with papery, marginal wings, membrane covering seed absent, dehiscence loculicidal, not separating into segments, not reclosing. Seeds ca. 100, pale brown, roundish, sometimes arillate, 5-15 mm, smooth to slightly textured.[43] [more]

Deutzia

Shrubs stellate hairy. Branchlets opposite; buds enclosed by imbricate scales. Leaves opposite, exstipulate, subdeciduous. Inflorescences racemose, paniculate, corymbose, or cymose, rarely a solitary flower. Calyx tube adnate to ovary, campanulate, 5-lobed. Petals 5, induplicate, valvate, or imbricate. Stamens 10(-15), 2-seriate; filaments subulate, flat, or dilated and apex 2-dentate; anthers shortly stalked, subglobose. Ovary inferior, rarely subinferior, 3-5-loculed; ovules numerous, in many series on fleshy placenta. Styles 3(-5), free; stigma terminal or decurrent. Fruit a capsule, subglobose, 3(-5) -valved, dehiscing loculicidally or between styles. Seeds numerous, oblong, compressed; testa membranous, reticulate, apex winged; embryo borne in middle of fleshy endosperm.[44] [more]

Diamorpha

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Diapensia

Shrublets, prostrate, compact, often forming a mat or cushion. Stems slender, many-branched. Leaves subsessile, often crowded, margin entire. Flowers solitary, subsessile or on a short scape. Calyx with 2 or 3 bracts at base. Corolla campanulate, 5-lobed to middle or more basally, caducous. Staminodes minute or absent. Ovary globose, 3-locular. Style erect, filiform; stigma entire, capitate, or slightly 3-lobed. Capsule 3-locular, ellipsoid or globular, surrounded by persistent calyx; scape elongating in fruit.[45] [more]

Digitalis

Herbs, rarely basally woody. Stems simple or branched at base. Leaves alternate, large, often crowded below, margin entire or toothed. Flowers in terminal, often secund racemes. Calyx 5-lobed; lobes imbricate. Corolla oblique, tubular-campanulate, often constricted beyond ovary, somewhat ventricose; limb slightly 2-lipped; lower lip 3-lobed, middle lobe longer than lateral lobes; upper lip lobes much reduced, emarginate. Stamens 4, didynamous, included; anthers touching in pairs, locules divaricate, apically confluent. Style 2-lobed. Capsule ovoid, septicidal. Seeds numerous, oblong to subovoid, small, ribbed; seed coat scrobiculate-reticulate.[46] [more]

Dipentodon

Dipentodon is a of flowering plants in the family Dipentodontaceae. Its only species, Dipentodon sinicus, is a small, deciduous tree native to southern China, Burma, and northern India. It has been little studied and until recently its affinities remained obscure. [more]

Disporum

Herbs perennial, often shortly rhizomatous, sometimes long stoloniferous, often glabrous, sometimes scabrous. Roots fleshy. Stem erect, simple or branched in distal part, with 1 to several sheaths proximally. Leaves concentrated in distal part of stem, alternate, often shortly petiolate, sometimes sessile, linear to suborbicular, 3--7-veined. Inflorescences terminal or pseudolateral (terminal on a short, lateral branchlet opposite a leaf), umbellate or with flowers paired or solitary; bract absent. Flowers bisexual, often nodding, sometimes horizontal, tubular-campanulate to opening flat. Tepals 6, free, white, greenish, yellow, pink, dark red, or dark purple, often saccate or spurred at base. Stamens 6, inserted at base of tepals; filaments usually slightly flat; anthers basifixed to innate, extrorse. Ovary 3-loculed; ovules 2--6 per locule. Style filiform, 3-lobed to 3-fid apically with ± recurved lobes. Fruit a berry, dark blue to black, 2(--6) -seeded. Seeds globose or ovoid.[47] [more]

Draba

Herbs perennial, rarely annual, biennial (or subshrubs with woody stems). Trichomes simple, forked, stellate, malpighiaceous, or dendritic, stalked or sessile, often more than 1 kind present. Stems erect or ascending, sometimes prostrate, leafy or leafless and plants scapose. Basal leaves petiolate, often rosulate, simple, entire or toothed, rarely lobed. Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, cuneate or auriculate at base, entire or dentate, sometimes absent.