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(Last Modified On 11/12/2012)
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(Last Modified On 11/12/2012)
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Family
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CAPPARIDACEALE
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Description
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Trees, shrubs, or herbs, frequently with glandular, lepidote, or stellate indu- ment, occasionally spiny; leaves alternate, rarely opposite, simple or palmately compound, frequently 1-foliolate, stipulate or exstipulate, usually entire, rarely minutely serrate; inflorescence indeterminate, simple or compound, occasionally reduced to a single flower, 'bracteate or ebracteate; flowers 'hermaphrodite or monoecious through abortion, regular or obliquely irregular; sepals usually 4, valvate, imbricate, or open in the bud, occasionally concrescent and rupturing ir- regularly at anthesis; petals 4, rarely 0, equal or unequal, usually unguiculate, imbricate, valvate, or open in the bud; receptacle usually elongated into a promi- nent gynophore or androgynophore, frequently with glandular or eglandular disk elaborations; stamens few to many, equal or unequal, more or less declinate as a rule; filaments usually connate at the very base and free or attached to an andro- gynophore, inflexed or contorted in the bud; anthers 4-celled, dehiscing longitud- inally, dorsifixed near the base; ovary usually borne upon a more or less elongate gynophore, occasionally' sessile or subsessile, 2-carpellate, 1-celled with 2 parietal placentas, rarely 2- to 4-celled by false septation; stigma capitate or shortly 2- lobed, sessile or stipitate; ovules campylotropous, usually numerous; fruit a dry silique dehiscing by 2 valves from a prominent replum, or fleshy and indehiscent -or tardily dehiscent and without a definite replum; seeds usually cochleate-reni- *form, with or without an aril, without endosperm, the embryo arcuate or coiled.
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Habit
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Trees shrubs
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Habit
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herbs
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Distribution
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A family predominantly of the tropics of both hemispheres.
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Note
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Beside the genera enumerated below, the genus Morisonia may be expected in Panama; it is closely related to Steriphoma in the concrescent calyx, but the stamens are included within the flowers, which lack the brilliant orange indument of Steriphoma. Although numerous Capparidaceae are woody, none reach sufficient size to produce usable timber. The family is chiefly noted for its production of "capers" (alcaparras), which are the pickled flower buds and young fruits of CapParis spinosa, and for a few species of Cleome, particularly C. sfinasa, which are cultivated as ornamentals .in temperate climates.
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Key
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a. Herbs, sometimes suffrutescent; fruit a dry, thin-walled silique, de- hiscing from a distinct, double replum. b. Flowers hermaphrodite; replum straight and persistently joined at the apex after dehiscence of the silique; seeds without an aril ............ 1. CLEOME bb. Flowers monoecious; replum separating at the apex and contorted after dehiscence of the silique; seeds arillate ........................................ 2. PODANDROGYNE aa. Shrubs and trees; fruit fleshy and tardily dehiscent or indehiscent, without a distinct replum. b. Flowers with 4 distinct sepals. c. Leaves compound, 3-foliolate; flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual by abortion; disc thick and conspicuous ............................................ 3. CRATAEVA cc. Leaves apparently simple, 1-foliolate; flowers hermaphrodite; disc thin and inconspicuous......................................................................... 4. CAPPAaIS bb. Sepals concrescent, rupturing irregularly at anthesis .......................... 5. STERIPHOMA
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