Interesting Facts
Description
Family Apiaceae
Herbs, annual
or perennial
, rarely woody at base
. Caulescent
or acaulescent
, stem hollow or solid. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or basal; petiole
usually sheathing
at base; stipules absent (except in subfam. Hydrocotyloideae) ; leaf blade
compound
or sometimes simple
, usually much incised or divided
, pinnatifid
to pinnatisect
, or ternate-pinnately decompound
. Flowers epigynous
, small, bisexual
or staminate
(unisexual
male), regular, in simple or compound umbels; umbellules few to many-flowered; rays often subtended by bracts forming a involucre; umbellules (sometimes called umbellets
) usually subtended by bracteoles forming an involucel
. Pedicels long, short or obsolete
(then forming a capitate umbellule) . Calyx tube
wholly adnate
to the ovary; calyx teeth (sometimes called sepals) small or obsolete, forming a ring
around the top of the ovary. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, with one anatropous ovule
in each locule. Styles 2, usually swollen at the base forming a stylopodium
which often secretes nectar. Fruit dry, of two mericarps united
by their faces
(commissure
), and usually attached to a central axis (carpophore), from which the mericarps separate at maturity; mericarps are variously flattened dorsally
, laterally or terete
; each mericarp has 5 primary ribs
, one down
the back (dorsal rib), two on the edges
near the commissure (lateral
ribs
), and two between the dorsal and lateral ribs (intermediate ribs), occasionally with four secondary ribs
alternating with the primary
, the ribs filiform
to broadly winged
, thin or corky; vittae (oil-tubes) usually present in the furrow (intervals between the ribs sometimes called the valleculae) and on the commissure face, rarely also in the pericarp, sometimes obscure
. Each mericarp 1-seeded, splitting
apart at maturity. Seed face (commissural
albumen) plane
, concave
to sulcate
.
Between 250 and 440( 455) genera and 3300 3700 species: widely distributed in the temperate
zone of both hemispheres, mainly in Eurasia
and especially in C Asia; 100 genera (ten endemic) and 614 species (340 endemic) in China.[1]
Taxonomy
- Domain:
Eukaryota
(
)
- Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- eukaryotes
- Kingdom:
Plantae
()
- Haeckel, 1866
- Plants
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
()
- Cavalier-Smith, 1981
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
()
- Sinnott, 1935 Ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Vascular Plants
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
()
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
()
- Kenrick & Crane, 1997
- Class:
Magnoliopsida
()
- Brongniart, 1843
- Dicotyledons
- Subclass:
Cornidae
()
- Frohne & Jensen Ex Reveal, 1994
- Subclass:
Cornidae
(
- Class:
Magnoliopsida
(
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
(
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
(
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
(
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
(
- Kingdom:
Plantae
(
Similar Species
Members of the genus Oreocome
ZipcodeZoo has pages for 0 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:
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Further Reading
Notes
Contributors
Identifiers
- Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 5974405
- Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15015192
- Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 2944847
Footnotes
- Menglan She, Fading Pu, Zehui Pan, Mark Watson, John F. M. Cannon, Ingrid Holmes-Smith, Eugene V. Kljuykov, Loy R. Phillippe & Michael G. Pimenov "Apiaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 14 Page 1. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
