Campanulaceae
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Campanulaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Family Description - Fls sympetalous, epigynous, generally perfect; cor regular to highly irregular, with valvate lobes; stamens attached to the annular, epigynous nectary-disk or to the base of the cor, as many as and alternate with the cor-lobes; pollen presentation mechanism complex, the anthers connivent or connate to form a tube into which the pollen is shed, the style provided with a fringe of collecting hairs below the initially appressed stigmatic branches, growing up through the anther-tube and pushing out the pollen; ovary inferior, of 2–3(–5) carpels, typically plurilocular with axile placentation, seldom unilocular with parietal placentation; fr commonly capsular, often poricidal or opening by longitudinal slits that may be more numerous than the carpels; seeds numerous, small, with a straight, dicotyledonous embryo embedded in the oily endosperm; herbs (all ours) or less often ± woody plants, with simple, mostly alternate lvs and variously cymose to racemose infls. 70/2000. (Lobeliaceae)
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Discussion
There are 2 well marked subfamilies, connected by some transitional genera in the Old World. The Campanuloideae (including our first 3 genera) have a regular, often campanulate cor and usually merely connivent anthers; the carpels usually number 3, sometimes 4 or 5. The Lobelioideae (including only Lobelia, among our genera) have a highly irregular cor, often with a fenestrate tube, and connate anthers; the carpels number 2; the fls are morphologically upside down to those of the Campanuloideae, but resupinate by twisting of the pedicel so that one sepal is adaxial (as in the nonresupinate Campanuloideae) and the 3-lobed morphological upper lip of the cor is visually the lower lip, and the visual upper lip is 2-lobed or 2-cleft, sometimes so deeply so as to lose its identity, the cor then appearing unilabiate.
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Common Names
The bellflower family