Content is from Kirkbride et al. 2006, without modification. Updates are forthcoming.
Fruits: Pistil(s) compound, or simple; 1 to more than 21; 1 to many; with carpels united, or carpels nearly separate to base. Fruit pericarpium; simple, or schizocarp; capsule, or berry, or drupe (Spjut Fig. 25E); druparium, or samarium (Spjut 7 families: Aceraceae, Malpighiaceae, Rhamnaceae, Sapindaceae, Simaroubaceae, Trigoniaceae, Zygophyllaceae); septicidal capsule and loculicidal capsule (latter near base & both not Spjut); capsule not inflated; capsule without operculum; berry indehiscent; berry without central placental mass; with persistent central column; not within accessory organ(s); with few seeds; few; from 1–5 cm long, or from 5.1–10 cm long; 4–5 cm long; with (1–)2–5(–8)-carpellate (Castela with 8); with carpels united, or separate; with carpels remaining united at maturity; with carpels radiating at maturity, or not radiating at maturity; with carpels remaining connected at style, or separating at style; without sterile carpels; not sulcate; in transection terete, or flat; apex not beaked; dehiscent, or indehiscent. Dehiscent unit seed(s). Dehiscent and shedding seeds; without replum. Epicarp brown (all shades), or red; shiny, or dull; durable; glabrous; without armature; smooth; without wing(s); without apical respiratory hole. Mesocarp present, or absent. Endocarp present, or absent; not separating from exocarp; woody, or thin; not splitting into 1-seeded pyrenes; smooth; without wing; without operculum; without secretory cavities; without mechanism for seedling escape; without grooves; without longitudinal ridges. Funiculus short; short without seed bearing hooks (retinacula); not persisting in fruit after seed shed.
Seeds: Aril absent, or present; an arillike structure. Seed larger than minute; 1 to less than 5 mm long to 10 to less than 25 mm long; 20–25 mm long; ellipsoid; in transection terete; not bowl shaped; not nutlike; without winglike beak; without caudate appendage(s); at maturity with food reserves, or without apparent food reserves; with endosperm; without canavanine. Sarcotesta absent. Testa present; without markedly different marginal tissue; without fleshy or leathery layer over hard layer; tight; shiny (and waxy); 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; brown (all shades); not becoming mucilaginous when wetted; surrounding food reserve. Endosperm development nuclear; moderate; fleshy. Embryo differentiated from food reserve; well developed; 1 per seed; nearly filling testa (trace or scanty food reserve), or completely filling testa (no food reserve); 0.8–1 times the length of food reserve; at one end of seed not extending into a depression or cup; axile and centric; foliate; with investing cotyledons, or spatulate cotyledons; straight, or arcuate; parallel to seed length; embedded in endosperm; with cotyledons abruptly connected to hypocotyl-radicle; without coleorhiza; without simmondsin; with cotyledons containing oils; without stomata; not green; with 2 or more cotyledons. Cotyledons 2; well developed; 0.8–0.9 times length of embryo; somewhat to significantly wider than hypocotyl-radicle; 3–5.8 times wider than hypocotyl-radicle; entirely concealing hypocotyl-radicle to not concealing hypocotyl-radicle; thin, or moderately thick; circinate, or flat, or once-folded (latter 2 for Harrisonia); smooth; with apices entire; with margins separate, or connate; basally entire; equal in size; not punctate dotted. Hypocotyl-radicle small, or moderately developed; straight; not thickened.
Mabberley: "Allanospermum - capsule 5-valved, 4–5 cm long, 5-lobed, septicidally splitting loculidically from near the base, each half-valve becoming slightly twisted, central columella persistent, bearing near the apex 5 arilloid processes from which seeds break away. Cronquist: Allantospermum: "Seed allarloid, exalbuminous, not winged, but with small arillar process adherent to the columella of the fruit". Forman on Allantospermun: "capsule septicidally splitting into 5 separate valves; each valve incompletely splitting loculicidally from the apex to near the base; each half-valve becoming slightly twisted, central columella persistent, bearing near the apex 5 arilloid processes from which the seed break away".
Literature specific to this family: Forman, L.L. 1965. A new genus of Ixonanthaceae with notes on the family. Kew Bull. 19:517–526; Nooteboom, H.P. 1967. The taxonomic position of Irvingioideae, Allantospermum Forman and Cyrillopsis Kuhlm. Adansonia, sér. 2, 7:163–168.
General references: Baillon, H.E. 1866–95. Histoire des plantes, 13 vols. Hachette & Co., Paris, Corner, E.J.H. 1976. The seeds of Dicots, esp. vol. 2. Cambridge University Press, New York, Cronquist, A. 1981. An integrated system of classification of flowering plants, 1,262 p. Columbia University Press, New York, Engler, A. & K. Prantl. 1924 and onward. Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilimien. W. Engelman, Leipzig, Gaertner, J. 1788–1805. De fructibus et seminibus plantarum. The Author, Stuttgart, Goldberg, A. 1986 (dicots) & 1989 (monocots). Classification, evolution, and phylogeny of the familes of Dicotyledons. Smithsonian Contr. Bot. 58 for dicots (314 pp.) & 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, & J.H. Kirkbride, Jr. 1992 & amendments. Families and genera of Spermatophytes recognized by the Agricultural Research Service. Techn. Bull. U.S.D.A. 1796:1–500, LeMaout, E. & J. Decaisne. 1876. A general system of botany, 1,065 p. Longmans, Green, & Co., London, Mabberley, D.J. 1987. The plant-book, 706 p. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Martin, A.C. 1946. The comparative internal morphology of seeds. Amer. Midl. Naturalist 36:513–660, 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, and Spjut, R.W. 1994. A systematic treatment of fruit types. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 70:1–182.
Authors: M. Islam, A. Miller, M. Maher, J. Scher, A. Redford
Content last updated November 2022
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