e-Key v3 - Ke<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1706191639516_9042552030817812" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>y to Caryophyll<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1706191639516_3708700465622894" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>aceae Genera
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.
Backtrack a
  • Leaves with stipules
  • Petals 0 or small
  • Styles at least partly fused
b
  • Leaves without stipules
  • Petals often conspicuous, rarely 0 or minute (*Sagina, *Scleranthus)
  • Styles free
Backtrack a
  • Leaves alternate
b
  • Leaves opposite
Backtrack a
  • Fruit a nutlet
b
  • Fruit a capsule
Backtrack a
  • Infructescence succulent, berry-like, translucent white
  • Leaves often in false whorls
b
  • Infructescence not succulent
  • Leaves opposite, upper ones sometimes alternate by reduction
  • Stipules sometimes large
Backtrack a
  • Stipules conspicuous
  • Sepals often hooded and with a dorsal, subapical awn
b
  • Stipules inconspicuous
  • Sepals mostly planoconcave, not hooded or awned
Backtrack a
  • Leaves linear to filiform
  • Plants often glandular-viscid
b
  • Leaves broader than above
  • Plants usually not glandular-viscid
Backtrack a
  • Leaves pseudoverticillate
  • Petals white
  • Stipules 4 per node
  • Styles 5(3)
b
  • Leaves decussate
  • Petals white or pink
  • Stipules 2, connate and sheathing the node
  • Styles 3(5)
Backtrack a
  • Petals 2-4-lobed or partite
  • Leaves ovate, 3-7-nerved from base
b
  • Petals entire, emarginate or dentate
  • Leaves rarely ovate, 1-nerved at base
Backtrack a
  • Sepals 9-13
  • Petals 5-8
  • Capsule 5-valved
b
  • Sepals 5
  • Petals 3
  • Capsule 3-valved
Backtrack a
  • Sepals winged up back and sharply prominent in fruit
b
  • Sepals scarious, long-acuminate
Backtrack a
  • Sepals free or only basally connate
  • Petals and stamens basally free, petal venation mostly open or semiclosed
  • Episepalous stamens often with a nectary gland at abaxial base
b
  • Sepals connate, often for most of their length
  • Petals mostly clawed, petals and stamens basally ± connate, petal venation ± closed
  • Abaxial base of episepalous stamens without nectary glands
Backtrack a
  • Fruit a nutlet
  • Perianth becoming crustaceous with age
b
  • Fruit a capsule
  • Perianth not becoming crustaceous with age
Backtrack a
  • Fruit splitting into as many valves as there are styles
b
  • Fruit splitting into twice as many valves as there are styles
Backtrack a
  • Petals entire, emarginate or fimbriate, rarely 0
b
  • Petals deeply 2-fid or bipartite
Backtrack a
  • Styles usually 2
b
  • Styles usually 3 or 4
Backtrack a
  • Styles usually 3
b
  • Styles usually 4
Backtrack a
  • Stamens 5
  • Styles 3 or occasionally 2
b
  • Stamens 10
  • Styles 5 or occasionally 4
Backtrack a
  • Calyx tube with 1-12 pairs of bracts at base
b
  • Calyx tube without bracts at base
Backtrack a
  • Bracts green, much shorter than calyx
b
  • Bracts membranous, as long as and clasping the calyx
Backtrack a
  • Calyx tube 5-winged
  • Styles 2
b
  • Calyx tube with 10, 20 or 30 ± prominent veins or ribs
  • Styles 3 or 5
Backtrack a
  • Calyx lobes longer than petals
b
  • Calyx lobes shorter than petals