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Hydrastidaceae Lemesle |
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~Ranunculaceae
Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Perennial; rhizomatous. Leaves simple. Lamina dissected; palmatifid. Leaves exstipulate.
Leaf anatomy. Stomata present; anomocytic.
Stem anatomy. Primary vascular tissue in scattered bundles. Medullary bundles present. Secondary thickening absent. Sieve-tube plastids S-type.
Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowershermaphrodite. Plants hermaphrodite. Floral nectaries absent.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary; small; partially acyclic, or acyclic. The androecium acyclic and the gynoecium acyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent.
Perianthsepaline; 3; petaloid. Calyx 3 (of petaloid sepals); 1 whorled; polysepalous; not persistent (caducous).
Androecium 30–100 (‘many’). Androecial sequence determinable. Androecial members maturing centripetally; free of the perianth; free of one another. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 30–100 (‘many’); polystemonous. Anthers non-versatile; dehiscing via longitudinal slits. Pollen grains aperturate; 3 aperturate.
Gynoecium30–100 carpelled (‘many’). Carpels increased in number relative to the perianth. Gynoecium apocarpous; eu-apocarpous; superior. Carpel 2 ovuled. Ovules bitegmic.
Fruit fleshy; an aggregate. The fruiting carpels coalescing into a secondary syncarp (this bright red). The fruiting carpel indehiscent; drupaceous. Fruit (drupelet) 1 seeded. Seeds endospermic. Embryo achlorophyllous (1/1).
Physiology, biochemistry. Not cyanogenic.
Geography, cytology. Temperate. One species in Japan, the other in Eastern North America. 2n = 26.
Taxonomy.Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Ranunculiflorae (?); Ranunculales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Magnoliidae; Ranunculales. APG 3 core angiosperms; peripheral eudicot; Superorder Ranunculanae; Order Ranunculales (as a synonym of Ranunculaceae).
Species 2. Genera 1; only genus, Hydrastis.
General remarks. This description is hopelessly inadequate.