Bignoniaceae |
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M. Tardelli & L. Settesoldi Plants usually trees, lieanas, or shrubs, rarely herbs; tendrils sometimes present. Leaves usually pposite, rarely alternatie, usually digitately or pinnately compound, without stipules. Inflorescences cymes, racemes, or of solitary flowers; bracts and bracteoles present. Flowers bisexual, moreor less bilaterally symmetric; calyces campanlate, closed or open in bud, truncate to 5-toothed; corollas sympetalous, 5-lobed, sometimes 2-lippd, the upper lip 2-lobed, the lower lip 3-lobed; stamens alternate with the corolla lobes, usually 4, 2 long and 2 short, with a posterior staminode, sometimes 2 stamens fertile and 3 staminodal, rarely all 5 fertile; anthers usually connivent in pairs, rarely free, 2-celled, p[ening lengthwise; disk usually present; ovaries superior, usually 2-celled, with 2axile placentas in each cell or 1-celled with 2 parietal 2-fid placentas; ovules numerous; stules terminal, 2-lobed. Fruits usually dehiscent capsules, sometimes fleshy and indehiscent; seeds often winged, without endosperm; embryos straight. The family Bignoniaceae includes about 105 genera and 850 species, most beingnative in the New World tropics. Several species are widely cultivated as ornamentalys because of their showy flowers. ©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; reproduced with permission. Plants usually woody, mostly trees or lianas, sometimes shrubs, rarely subshrubs or herbs. Leaves petiolate, usually opposite, rarely alternate or verticillate (in whorls); blades usually compound and bifoliate, trifoliate, pinnate, or palmate, rarely simple. Stipules absent; persistent; enlarged axillary bud scales (pseudostipules) often present; domatia present in some genera. Inflorescences of solitary flowers, racemose or of helicoid or dichasial cymes, subtended by persistent or deciduous bracts or bractlets. Flowers hypogynous, zygomorphic, bisexual, and usually conspicuous; calyx and corolla distinct. Calyx synsepalous, with five sepals. Corolla sympetalous, with five petals, often bilabiate, sometimes merely zygomorphic. Corolla lobes usually imbricate in bud, rarely valvate, and usually much shorter than the corolla tube. Stamens inserted on the corolla tube, alternating with corolla lobes, usually 4 and didynamous and often connivent, if 5, the adaxial stamen usually staminodial, occasionally 2 stamens fertile and 3 staminodia; The four stamens are didynamous, Gynoecium with a superior ovary of 2 united carpels, 1 style, and a bilobed stigma; ovary usually with 1 septum, (none in Tourrettia; 2 in Eccremocarpus; placentation usually axile (parietal in Tourrettia); ovules numerous. Fruit usually a bivalved capsule; usually dehiscent, the dehiscence septicidal or loculicidal, sometimes indehiscent, a berry in Colea; seeds flat, winged if fruits dehiscent, otherwise not winged. The three exceptions are the genera Kigelia, Crescentia and its close relatives, and Colea and its close relatives; endosperm usually absent, sometimes sparse. |
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