Nyctaginaceae

  • Family

    Nyctaginaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Nyctaginaceae

  • Description

    Number of genera: 30

    Number of species: 300

    Description (from PLANTAE): Herbs, shrubs, trees or sometimes lianas. Stems of woody taxa with anomalous secondary growth of concentric rings of vascular bundles, sometimes armed with axillary thorns. Stipules absent. Monoecious or dioecious. Leaves opposite or subopposite, rarely verticillate (those of a pair or verticil sometimes unequal), sometimes alternate, simple; blade margins usually entire; venation pinnate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, flowers solitary or more often in panicles, spikes or umbels, sometimes with involucral, the bracts often showy, the terminal units usually cymose, sometimes pseudanthial and the involucre calyx- or corolla-like. Flowers usually actinomorphic, bisexual or unisexual (plant dioecious), usually 5-merous; perianth uniseriate, sepaline, the sepals 5, fused, often corraloid, campanulate, urceolate (rarely), infundibular or tubular, the lobes usually 5; androecium uniseriate, usually free of the perianth or adnate to perianth tube, the stamens usually 5 (sometimes 1-30), alternating with the calyx lobes, equal or unequal, the filaments usually basally connate or free, inflexed in bud, included or sometimes exserted, the anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits, intrastaminal annular disc sometimes present; gynoecium superior, the carpels 1, the ovule 1, basal, the style usually long, slender, the stigma capitate, penicillate or fimbriate. Fruits achenes (also called diclesia) with persistent perianth, the perianth fleshy or inflated, sometimes longitudinally costate, the costa with stipitate glands. Seeds 1, oblong or lenticular

    Taxonomic notes (from PLANTAE): Betalains present. Leaves often drying black

    Distribution (from PLANTAE): This family occurs mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of both the Old and the New World, but more numerous in the latter.

  • Floras and Monographs

    Nyctaginaceae: [Book] Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.