Contains 5 genera and 9 accepted taxa overall.
This family is completely databased for all specimens.
Characteristics
NYCTAGINACEAE
Dicot
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Classification
CARYOPHYLLALES
NYCTAGINACEAE
Identification Key
1. Stem with supranodal thorns; leaves alternate; flowers included in and surrounded by conspicuous white or colored bracts (Bougainvillea; commonly cultivated, not or sparingly naturalized)
2
1. Stem with or without thorns; leaves alternate, subopposite, or opposite; flowers not surrounded by white or colored bracts
4
2. Flower tube hirsute-villous (hairs 0.25-1.25 mm long); leaf blade broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, the tip broadly rounded to abruptly acuminate, the base truncate to truncate-cuneate to nearly cordate
2. Flower tube glabrous, puberulent, to puberulent-villous (hairs <0.25 mm long); leaf blade various
3
3. Leaf blade elliptic to ovate, the tip acuminate or rarely obtuse, the base cuneate to broadly cuneate
3. Leaf blade broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, the tip broadly rounded to abruptly acuminate, the base truncate to truncate-cuneate to nearly cordate
4. Woody, vine, shrub or tree; flowers unisexual (plants dioecious); calyx lobes green, yellowish, to white; stigma penicillate
5
4. Herbaceous, sometimes woody at the base; flowers bisexual; calyx lobes purplish to white; stigma capitate
6
5. Fruit dry, glandular
5. Fruit fleshy, berry-like, eglandular
6. Flowers subtended by foliaceous connate, bracts forming an involucre
6. Flowers ebracteate or subtended by narrow, small, distinct bracts that do not form an involucre
7
7. Stems prostrate, decumbent, to erect; flowers usually several in clusters; fruits aerial, the peduncles not or only slightly elongating after anthesis, not penetrating the soil
7. Stems prostrate, rooting at some nodes; flowers solitary; fruits hypogeous, the peduncles greatly elongating after anthesis, penetrating the soil