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Synonyms: Hirtellaceae Horan.
Common name: Cocoa-plum Family.
Number of genera 17. Number of species 460.
Angiosperm. Magnoliopsida.
Disseminule an intact or entire fruit, or an incomplete fruit with epicarp and mesocarp absent and endocarp exposed.
Fruits
Pistil(s) compound; 1; 1-pistillate; with carpels nearly separate to base. Fruit pericarpium; simple; nuculanium (Licania), or drupe (Parinari); without persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); from 1–5 cm long to from 5.1–10 cm long; 1.2–9 cm long; 1-carpellate, or 2-carpellate; with carpels united; with carpels remaining united at maturity; without sterile carpels; in transection terete; apex not beaked; indehiscent. Epicarp black, or brown (all shades), or green, or yellow (dotted); durable; crustaceous (rarely); glabrous (without hairs), or not glabrous (with hairs); hairs dense; hairs not glandular; without armature; not smooth, or smooth; verrucose; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present, or absent; fleshy and thin, or thick and hard (bony); composed of 1 unified layer; without lactiform cavity system; and endocarp not sharply differentiated. Endocarp present; not separating from exocarp; thin, or thick, or bony, or fibrous, or hard; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; smooth, or not smooth; with slightly ridges, or fibers, or granules; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; with mechanism for seedling escape, or without mechanism for seedling escape; with longitudinal ridges, or without longitudinal ridges; with fracturing longitudinal ridges so seedling can emerge, or without fracturing longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds
Aril absent. Seed larger than minute; 10 to less than 25 mm long; 25 mm long; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity without food reserves; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; without crease or line separating cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle; without notch along margin where cotyledons from hypocotyl-radicle tip approach each other; without glands; without bristles; glabrous; without wings; without collar; without operculum; colored; monochrome; membranous; not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding embryo.
Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; completely filling testa (no food reserve); at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; foliate; with spatulate cotyledons, or investing cotyledons; straight; parallel to seed length; with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; with cotyledons containing licanic acid, or parinaric acid; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; partially concealing hypocotyl-radicle; not foliaceous; thick; flat; smooth, or ruminate (occasionally); with margins separate; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle vestigial; straight; not thickened.
Distribution
Pantropical. New World, Old World (best developed in New World). North America, Middle America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia Major, Asia Minor, southeastern Asia, Australia, Oceania.
Weed information
No USA noxious weeds.
Listed seeds
ISTA listed seeds.
ISTA listed seeds: -- Licania rigida Benth. -- Symbols: aagricultural and vegetable seeds (Table 2A Part 1); ttree and shrub species (Table 2A Part 2); fflower, spice, herb, and medicinal seeds (Table 2A Part 3); wweed seeds. -- Last updated September 2008.
Accepted genera
Acioa Aubl. -- Atuna Raf. -- Bafodeya Prance ex F. White -- Chrysobalanus L. -- Couepia Aubl. -- Dactyladenia Welw. -- Exellodendron Prance -- Grangeria Comm. ex Juss. -- Hirtella L. -- Hunga Pancher ex Prance -- Kostermanthus Prance -- Licania Aubl. -- Magnistipula Engl. -- Maranthes Blume -- Neocarya (DC.) Prance ex F. White -- Parastemon A. DC. -- Parinari Aubl.
References specific to this family
Cronquist page 580. Prance, G.T. & F. White. 1988. The genera of Chrysobalanaceae: A study in practical and theoretical taxonomy and its relevance to evolutionary biology. Philos. Trans., Ser. B 320:1–184.
General references
Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Flora Neotropica. 1968–74. Nos. 1–14. Hafner Publishing Company, Darien and 1976-. Nos. 15-present. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx [monograph number], Gaertner, J. 1788–1805. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum. The Author, Stuttgart, Goldberg, A. 1986 (dicots) and 1989 (monocots). Classification, evolution, and phylogeny of the familes of Dicotyledons. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 58 for dicots (314 pp.) and 71 for monocots (74 pp.). [Goldberg's illustrations are reproduced from older publications and these should be consulted], Gunn, C.R., J.H. Wiersema, C.A. Ritchie, and J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 and amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Roosmalen, M.G.M. van. 1985. Fruits of the Guianan flora, 483 pp. Institute of Systematic Botany, Wageningen Agricultural University. Drukkerij Veenman B.V., Wageningen, Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Illustrations
Poor fruit and seed illustrations. Disseminule illustration(s): fruit, or fruit incomplete, or seed, or embryo. Fruit illustration(s): Roosmalen, Flora Neotropica [9]. Fruit illustration(s): Flora Neotropica [9], Prance & White (1988), Karen [a mixture of seed and endocarps?]. Seed illustration(s): Karen [a mixture of seed and endocarps?]. Embryo illustration(s): Flora Neotropica [9], Karen. Karen's plate number and taxon (taxa): 177: Chrysobalanus icaco L. (A-C), Couepia polyandra (Kunth) Rose (D-F), Grangeria borbonica Lam. (G-I), Hirtella triandra Sw. (J-L), Licania hypoleuca Bentham (M-O), Maranthes floribunda (Bak.) F. White (P-R), Parastemon versteeghii Merrill & Perry (S-U), Parinari (mobola) curatellifolia Planch ex Benth. subsp. mobole (Oliv.) R. A. Graham [not finalized].
• Fruit. 1 of 12. Chrysobalanus icaco L.: fruit. • Seed. 2 of 12. Chrysobalanus icaco L.: seeds.. • Fruit. 3 of 12. Hirtella triandra Sw.: fruit. • Seed. 4 of 12. Hirtella triandra Sw.: seed. • Fruit. 5 of 12. Licania platypus (Hemsl.) Fritsch: fruit. • Seed. 6 of 12. Licania platypus (Hemsl.) Fritsch: seeds. • Embryo. 7 of 12. Chrysobalanus icaco L.: embryo. • Embryo. 8 of 12. Couepia polyandra (Kunth) Rose: embryo. • Embryo. 9 of 12. Grangeria borbonica Lam.: embryo. • Embryo. 10 of 12. Hirtella triandra Sw.: embryo. • Embryo. 11 of 12. Licania hypoleuca Benth.: embryo. • Embryo. 12 of 12. Parastemon versteeghii Merr. & Perry: embryo.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘J.H. Kirkbride, Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2000 onwards. Family guide for fruits and seeds: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 12th April 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
