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Theoideae

(Subfamily)

Overview

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A Subfamily in the Kingdom Plantae.

Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Subfamily Theoideae is a member of the Family Haloragaceae. Here is the complete "parentage" of Theoideae:

The Subfamily Theoideae is further organized into finer groupings including:

Genera

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Abelia

A Genus in the Kingdom Plantae. [more]

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]

Acer

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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]

Aconitum

Herbs, perennial, from tubers or elongate, fascicled roots. Leaves basal and cauline, proximal leaves petiolate, distal leaves sessile or nearly so; cauline leaves alternate. Leaf blade palmately divided into 3-7 segments, ultimate segments narrowly elliptic or lanceolate to linear, margins incised and toothed. Inflorescences terminal, sometimes also axillary, 1-32(-more) racemes or panicles, to 28 cm; bracts leaflike, not forming involucre. Flowers bisexual, bilaterally symmetric; sepals not persistent in fruit; lower sepals (pendents) 2, plane, 6-20 mm; lateral sepals 2, round-reniform; upper sepal (hood) 1, saccate, arched, crescent-shaped or hemispheric to rounded-conic or tall and cylindric, usually beaked, 10-50 mm; petals 2, distinct, bearing near apex a capitate to coiled spur, concealed in hood, long-clawed; nectary present, on spur; stamens 25-50; filaments with base expanded; staminodes absent between stamens and pistils; pistils 3(-5), simple; ovules 10-20 per pistil; style present. Fruits follicles, aggregate, sessile, oblong, sides prominently transversely veined; beak terminal, straight, 2-3 mm. Seeds deltoid, usually with small, transverse, membranous lamellae. x =8.[2] [more]

Aesculus

Trees or shrubs, deciduous. Winter buds large, viscid resinous or not, with several pairs of imbricate scales; scales abaxially glabrous or sparsely puberulent. Leaf blade 5-11-foliolate; leaflet blades without scattered, conspicuous glands, margin crenate to serrate or compoundly so. Thyrse cylindric or conic; branches simple; bracts absent. Flowers often large and showy. Sepals connate to form a tubular to campanulate calyx tube. Petals often unequal, base clawed, limb obovate, oblong, oblanceolate, or spatulate. Ovary without a gynophore; style long, slender; stigma depressed globose, entire or obscurely lobed. Capsule depressed globose to pyriform, without a long gynophore, often 1-seeded; pericarp usually smooth, often dotted, rarely verrucose or prickly. Seeds depressed globose to pyriform, large (2-7 cm) ; testa brown; hilum large, pale, occupying 1/3-1/2 of seed. x = 20.[3] [more]

Aethionema

Perennial or annual herbs, often woody below, branched, erect or suberect, leafy, glabrous or rarely papillose. Leaves simple, usually sessile or subsessile, oblong or linear, glaucous. Racemes corymbose, usually many flowered, ebracteate. Flowers mediocre, rose, lilac or white, rarely yellowish; pedicls filiform, usually spreading in fruit. Sepals oblong, obtuse, rounded at apex; inner ±saccate at base; outer often somewhat hooded at apex. Petals obovate, cuneate or clawed, rarely oblong; claw 1-3-nerved. Stamens 6; filaments of longer stamens append-aged, dilated or linear; anthers often apiculate, ovate-orbicular. Lateral nectar glands in pairs, minute, semiglobose; middle usually absent. Ovary ± ellipsoid with narrowly flattened margin, 1-2-locular with 1-2 (rarely 3-4) ovules in each locule; stigma capitate, sub-sessile or on distinct short style. Siliculae ovate, elliptic or suborbicular, laterally flattened, usually winged, dehiscent, (rarely heterocarpic with dehiscent and indehiscent fruits), 1-4-seeded; apex generally deeply notched or emarginate; wing entire or variously dentate; seed ovate, brown, often minutely papillose; radicle incumbent, oblique or accumbent.[4] [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.[5] [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.[6] [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.[7] [more]

Amarine

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Ambrosia

Annuals, perennials, or shrubs, 10-400+ cm (usually rhizomatous). Stems erect, decumbent, or prostrate, branched. Leaves usually cauline; opposite ± throughout or opposite (proximal) and alternate or mostly alternate; sessile or petiolate; blades (or lobes) deltate, elliptic, filiform, lanceolate, linear, obovate, ovate, or rhombic (and most intermediate shapes), usually pinnately, sometimes palmately lobed, ultimate margins entire or toothed, faces hairy or glabrate, usually gland-dotted or stipitate-glandular. Heads discoid (unisexual, pistillate proximal to or intermixed with staminates, staminates usually in racemiform to spiciform arrays; rarely, single plants all or mostly staminate or pistillate). Pistillate heads: phyllaries 12-30(-80+) in 1-8+ series, outer (1-) 5-8 distinct or ± connate, herbaceous, the rest (sometimes interpreted as paleae) ± connate, usually with free tips forming tubercles, spines, or wings (the whole becoming a hard perigynium or "bur") ; florets 1(-5+), corollas 0. Staminate heads: involucres cup-shaped to saucer-shaped, 1.5-6+ mm diam.; phyllaries 5-16+ in ± 1 series, ± connate; receptacles ± flat or convex; paleae spatulate to linear, membranous, sometimes villous, hirtellous, and/or gland-dotted or stipitate-glandular, sometimes none; florets 5-60+; corollas whitish or purplish, ± funnelform, lobes 5, erect or incurved; staminal filaments connate, anthers distinct or weakly coherent. Cypselae (black) ± ovoid or fusiform, enclosed within globose to obovoid, pyramidal, pyriform, obconic, or fusiform, hard, smooth, tuberculate, spiny, or winged "burs"; pappi 0. x = 18.[8] [more]

Ampelopsis

Lianas, woody, hermaphroditic or polygamo-monoecious. Tendrils 2- or 3-branched. Leaves simple, 1- or 2-pinnately or palmately compound. Inflorescence a corymbose cyme, leaf-opposed or pseudoterminal, often at tips of tendrils. Flowers 5-merous. Calyx saucer-shaped. Petals 5, free. Disk well developed, margin undulately lobed. Stamens 5. Style conspicuous; stigma inconspicuously expanded. Berry spherical, 1-4-seeded. Seed obovoid, base rostrate, apex rounded; cross-section of endosperm M-shaped.[9] [more]

Amsonia

Herbs annual or perennial, erect, with latex, without stolons. Leaves alternate, membranous. Cymes thyrsoid or corymbose,