Thonner's Key to the Families

Abaxial: acing away from the axis.
Achene: A one-seeded, dry, indehiscent fruit with the seed free from the pericarp.
Actinomorphic: Regular: a flower with radially arranged (sub-)equal perianth-segments.
Adaxial: Facing the axis.
Adnate: Of organs: fusion of non-homologous ones (petals with stamens, etc., see connate); of anthers: more or less fused with the filament and not movable freely and independently from the latter (see versatile).
Aestivation: The way in which the floral parts are placed in bud.
Alternate: Of leaves: attached solitary and spaced along the axis.
Alterni: stamens alternating with the petals.
Amphotropus: A form like anatropous
Anatropous: Ovules with the raphe so adnate to the straight nucellus that the micropyle is next to the funicle.
Androgynophore: A stalk supporting both the stamens and the pistil(s).
Androphore: A stalk supporting the stamens.
Annual: Of herbs: completing the full cycle of germination to fruiting within the year and then dying.
Anther: The part of the stamen containing the pollen, usually bilocularc and the locules ('thecae') connected by the connective.
Antidromous: Of stipules: connate on one side, but not over the petiole (then intra-petiolar, q.v.), leaving a ring-like scar around the twig, as in Ficus, Platanus.
Apert: Margins of the perianth-segments not touching each other in bud, except perhaps at the very base.
Apetalus: Without petals. Sepals (or bracts) present or absent. Pure male flowers may may have sepals end tepals.
Apocarpous: Composed of 2 or more mutually free carpels.
Apotropous: An anatropous ovule with the funicle facing away from the placenta when pendulous, to next to it when erect. (cf. epitropous).
Aril: A usually fleshy or membranous cover of the seed originating from the hilum, or funicle, or placenta, or micropylar area.
Articulated: Provided with a joint or preformed breakage-point (in pedicels, petioles, or fruits).
Ascending: In stems: prostrate at base, becoming erect upwards; of ovules: with the funicle pointing upwards.
Asymmetric: Not divisable by any plane into two (sub-)equal parts,
Atropous: Of ovules: funicle, nucellus, and micropyle in one line; a straight (orthotropous) ovule.
Auricle: A lateral (usually rounded) appendage (in a leaf at the base of the blade or petiole itself, not to be confused with the stipules, q.v.).
Autotrophous: A green, non-parasitic, non-saprophytic plant.
Awn: A strong bristle or bristle-like structure.
Axillary: Standing in an axil; of ovules: attached along the central axis in a loculed ovary

**ovules —> seed**
	amphitropous

**ovules —> seed**
	anatropous

**apetalous,tepals absent**

without perianth	free sepals/bracts

connate sepals/bracts	undifferentiated sepals/bracts

male flower with sepals and tepals

**ovules —> seed: antropous**
	anatropous

**ovules —> seed**
	atropous(orthotropous)

Basifix: Of anthers: filament attached at or near the base of the anther.
Berry: A fleshy or juicy fruit, indehiscent, endocarp not indurated, seeds not in distinct locules.
Biennial: Of herbs: completing the full cycle of germination to fruiting in more than one, but not more than two years and then dying.
Bisexual: Having both fertile stamens and pistils in one flower.
Bract: Any modified, usually reduced leaf, usually the ones subtending a flower or (part of) an inflorescence.
Bracteole: One or more bracts on a pedicel. (,Vote: to be present on the pedicels of all flowers, otherwise to be regarded as bracts).
Bulb: A short, usually subterranean part of the plant composed of thickened scales.

Calycoid: Resembling a calyx.
Calyptra: Cap-shaped, see closed.
Calyx: The outermost floral envelope (but cf. epicalyx), usually smaller and drier than the next inner one (corolla), and more or less green.
Campanulate: Bell-shaped: tube about as long as wide, gradually enlarged into the limb.
Campylotropous: A form of anatropous
Capitate: Head-shaped, as the knob of a pin; of flowers: in capitules.
Capitule: An inflorescence with more or less sessile flowers on a common receptacle, surrounded by an involucre (if not, see glomerule).
Capsule: A dry fruit, dehiscing in various ways, derived from 2 or more carpels.
Carpel: A leaf-derived organ bearing ovules. (An ovary is considered to be composed of 1 -more carpels).
Caruncle: A wart or protuberance on the seed, see also obturator.
Caryops: A one-seeded, dry, indehiscent fruit with the pericarp adnate to the testa.
Catkin: A dense raceme or spike, usually pendulous, with minute unisexual flowers, falling as a whole.
Cf: Compare, see.
Chalaza: Of ovules or seeds: the place where the nucellus meets the integuments; opposite the cotyledons.
Choripetalous: Petals free. Sepals free or connate.
Cincinnus: A cymose, dichotomous inflorescence resembling a raceme, in which the apparent main axis is in fact composed of secondary ones, i.e. an actually lateral branch forms the internode. Note the presence of a bract or leaf opposite to the flower and not subtending it, as in truly racemose inflorescences.
Clavate: Club-shaped.
Closed: In aestivation: all parts connate either separating at anthesis, or deciduous together because of a transverse suture as a calyptra.
Coherent: separated with caution without tearing.
Collateral: Placed side by side, as in ovules.
Columelia: In fruits: the persistent central axis after dehiscence.
Compound: Consisting of free parts: leaflets in leaves, partial inflorescences in inflorescences, etc.
Cone: A spike-like inflorescence with large, indurating bracis; the ultimate pseudocarp; a flower, inflorescence, or fruit resembling this.
Connate: Of organs: fusion of homologous ones, e.g. petals among themselves, etc.; see adnate.
Connective: The tissue between the locules ('thecae') of the anther (usually very inconspicuous).
Contort: Margins of the perianth-segments overlapping each other so that one part is inside, the other outside, and none is completely inner- or outermost. (Note: this state, unless expressly stated is usually included in imbricate, q.v.).
Cordate: At base with an acute incision between two rounded lobes, generally also with a more or less acute apex.
Corniculate: With horn-shaped appendages.
Corolla: The inner-most floral envelope (but cf. corona), usually larger, more flaccid than the outermost one (calyx), and usually coloured (not green).
Corolloid: Resembling a corolla.
Corona: One, rarely two whorls of petaloid, or thread- or horn-like, etc. appendages between the corolla and the stamens, of corolloid or staminodial origin, as in Narcissus, Passiflora (not to be confused with the lobes of a disk).
Corymb: An inflorescence, usually a raceme, in which the flowers through unequal pedicels are in one (horizontal) plane.
Cotyledon: The first leaf or leaves of the embryo, usually present in the seed.
Crenate: Of a margin with small, sharp incisions and rounded intermediate teeth.
Cupule: Connate, indurated bracts subtending or enveloping a flower or an inflorescence, as in Fagaceae.
Cyme: A cymose inflorescence, especially one with equally developed lateral branches.
Cymose: Of an inflorescence: branched with flowers terminating each axis; determinate.

**ovules —> seed**
	campilotropous

**choripetalous,petals free**

free sepals	connate sepals	free sepals

Decussate: In pairs that alternate at right angles, organs thus in four rows.
Dehiscent: or dehiscing Opening at maturity to release the contents (pollen, seeds).
Dentate: Of a margin: with small, blunt incisions and sharp teeth.
Descending: Of ovules: with the funicle pointing downwards.
Dichasial: Of an inflorescence: cymose with opposite branches.
Dichotomous: Divided into two equal parts.
Didynamous: Of stamens: consisting of two unequally long pairs.
Dioecious: Male and female flowers on different plants.
Disk: A more or less pronounced outgrowth of the receptacle without vascular traces, ring-, cushion-, cup-shaped, etc., sometimes divided into lobes or separate bodies, or a unilateral one; generally with a nectarsecreting function.
Divaricate: Divergent with an obtuse angle, usually approaching 180'.
Dorsal: Generally: abaxial; of a raphe: on the side of the ovule facing away from the placenta.
Dorsifix: Of anthers: attached about halfway the length to the filament.
Drupe: An indehiscent fruit with a membranous to leathery exocarp, a more or less fleshy mesocarp and a strongly indurated, woody to stony endocarp.

**ovules: position versus placenta**
	epitropous	apotropous
descending pendulous
raphe:	ventral	dorsal
ascending
raphe:	dorsal	ventral

E.g.: For example.
Ellipsoid: Elliptic, but tridimensional.
Elliptic: A two-dimensional shape, in which the length is between one and two times the width with the greatest width about the middle.
Emarginate: Notched.
Embryo: The rudimentary plant present in a mature seed.
Endo-: A prefix: the inner . . ., as in endocarp, the inner layer of the pericarp, and in endotesta, the inner layer of the testa.
Endosperm: The nutritive tissue within the seed (not of the embryo proper), usually surrounding the embryo or to one side of it (here inclusive of perisperm).
Entire: An even margin; without any incisions or teeth.
Epi: A prefix: 1) before, as in epipetalous stamens: stamens inserted before the petals (not necessarily adnate to them!); 2) upon, as in epiphyte; 3) on, or above, as in epigynous; 4) next to, as in epitropous.
Epicalyx: An involucre of a single flower resembling an outer calyx next to the actual one.
Epigynous: Sepals, petals or tepals and stamens inserted on or above the plane through the apex of the ovary (which may be superior to inferior).
Epimatium: The ovule-bearing scale in Coniferales.
Epiphyte: A plant growing upon an other and not rooting in the soil, usually non-parasitic.
Epitropous: An anatropous ovule with the funicle next to the placenta, when pendulous, or facing away from it, when ascending (cf. apotropous).
Equitant: Of leaves: distichous and with overlapping leaf-bases, as in Iris, Zingiber.
Exduplicative: In aestivation: valvate with the margins folded outwards.
Exo-: A prefix: the outer . . . , as in exocarp, the outer layer of the pericarp, and in exotesta, the outer layer of the testa.
Extra-: A prefix: outside, as in extra-staminal: outside the stamens.
Extrorse: Of anthers: dehiscing abaxially (check in bud!).

**flower epigynous**
	flower epigynous ovary inferior		H=hypanthium flowers epigynous ovary superior

**ovules: position versus placenta**
	epitropous	apotropous
descending pendulous
raphe:	ventral	dorsal
ascending
raphe:	dorsal	ventral

Fascicle: A group of leaves or pedicelled flowers (cf. glomerule), apparently originating from the same point or area of a branch (cf. umbel).
Fertile: Provided with functional sexual parts (pollen or ovules well developed and capable of producing seeds).
-fid: A suffix: divided to about half-way the midrib.
Filament: The stalk of the anther.
Follicle: A dry fruit, derived from a single carpel and dehiscing along one suture.
Funicle: The stalk of the ovule.
Fusiform: A tridimensional shape, terete and tapering at both ends.

Globose: Ball-shaped.
Glomerule: A cluster of sessile, usually minute flowers, not surrounded by an involucre (cf. capitule).
Glume: A more or less scarious bract subtending a specialized inflorescence, as in the spikelet of a grass.
Gynobasic: Of styles: attached near or to the base of the ovary.
Gynophore: A stalk supporting the pistil(s).

Hastate: A shape with at base two divergent, acute lobes.
Haustorium: A sucker of parasitic plants.
Hemi-: A prefix: partly, as in ovary hemi-inferior: ovary partly adnate to the hypanthium and partly free from it.
Hemitropous: An anatropous ovule with a medially attached funicle and a terminal micropyle at a right angle to the latter.
Herb: Plant, non-woody, or woody at base only, above-ground stems usually ephimerical.
Hilum: The place where the ovule or seed is or was attached to the funicle or placenta.
Hispid: Provided with stiff, rigid hairs or bristles.
Hypanthium: An enlarged receptacle with a more or less well-developed part between the ovary and the insertion of the perianth-segments; from the outside of the flower the difference between the hypanthium and the calyx is often obscure.
Hypogynous: The sepals, petals or tepals and usually also the stamens inserted below or at the plane of insertion of the ovary. (Note: there may be a more or less developed receptacle with or without a disk; the ovary is always superior; the stamens may be inserted on the petals, whereby the flowers appear to be epi- or perigynous.

**ovule —> seed**
	hemitropous

**hypanthium**
	H=hypanthium flowers perigynous ovary superior		H=hypanthium flowers epigynous ovary superior

**flowers hypogynous**
	flower hypogynous stamens inserted below receptacle ovary superior		flower hypogynous stamens inserted on the corrolla ovary superior

Imbricate: Overlapping each other by their margins, especially used for the aestivation. (Note: unless stated incl. contort, then specifically: one or two parts outermost, one or two innermost, the other(s) partly covered, partly covering).
Imparipinnate: usually with a terminal one.
Indument: The hair-like covering of an object.
Induplicative: In aestivation: valvate with the margins folded inwards.
Inferior: Of the ovary: completely fused with the hypanthium, at most with a free summit, if less adnate, see hemi-.
Integument: Of an ovule: its envelope(s).
Inter-: A prefix: between, as in inter-petiolary: between the petioles.
Intra-: A prefix: within, as in intra-petiolary: within the axil, but abaxial to the axillary bud or branch; intra-staminal: within the whorl of the stamens.
Introrse: Of anthers: dehiscing adaxially (check in bud!).
Involucre: A usually bract-like structure surrounding a flower or an inflorescence (as in Compositae), or another organ (as the stigma in Goodeniaceae).
Irregular: Of a flower: not to be divided into any (sub-)equal parts; asymmetric. (Usually only the perianth-segments are considered of importance).

**(hemi)inferior**
	flower perigynous ovary hemi-inferior		flower epigynous ovary inferior

Jno entry present

Kno entry present

Lanceolate: A two-dimensional shape, in which the length is between three and five times the width with the greatest width about the middle.
Latex: A milky juice exudated when cut, as in Euphorbia, Hevea.
Latrorse: Of anthers: dehiscing laterally (check in bud!).
Lepidote: Covered by a more or less stellate, scurfy indument.
Liana: A usually woody climber without specialized climbing-organs (as in vines).
Ligulate: Tongue-shaped; provided with a ligule.
Ligule: A variously shaped appendage internal to the base of leaf-blades, or petioles, or perianth-segments.
Limb: The free parts of a connate calyx or corolla, distinct from the tube.
Linear: A two-dimensional shape, in which the length is more than ten times the width with the greatest width about the middle.
Linear-: between five and ten times the width with the greatest width about the middle.
Lip: One or more exceptionally well-developed perianth-segments, in clear contrast to the other ones of the same envelope, as in most orchids.
Lobed: Divided to less than half-way the midrib (e.g. of leaves), or shallowly incised (e.g. of stigmas).
-locular: A suffix: the number of locules. (Note: minute and obviously reduced ones devoid of ovules or seeds are not to be counted).
Locule: A more or less closed cavity, containing the pollen in anthers and the ovules in ovaries. An incomplete locule of an ovary is one, where the septs are not completely developed and/or fused (incomplete septs) and one may pass from one locule to another. Locules which are incomplete at their very top have been considered as complete by Thonner.
Loculicide: Of capsules: dehiscing between the septs or placentas into the locule.
Lomentaceous: A fruit: at maturity transversely dehiscent into parts (cf. schizocarp).

Mericarp: Part of a schizocarp.
-merous: A suffix: divisable by the same basic number, e.g. 5-merous: sepals 5, petals 10, stamens 15 (the number of carpels and their style(s) or stigma(s) is usually of no importance).
Mesocarp: Of fruits: the middle layer of the pericarp.
Micropyle: The opening between the integuments of an ovule. A microscope is usually needed to observe this and/or some dose of fantasy. In the seed the radicle apparently always points towards the micropyle!
Monoecious: Male and female flowers on the same plant.
Mucro: A sharp, usually suddenly constricteed terminal point.
Mucronate: Having a mucro.

Naked: Devoid of an envelope.
Nigrescent: Becoming black or dark in drying.
Nucellus: The kernel of an ovule, usually surrounded by integuments, from which the embryo (and the endosperm) is formed.
Nut: A dry indehiscent fruit with a more or. less indurated pericarp and a single seed.

Ob-: A prefix: the other way around, as :in obovate: ovate but widest above the middle.
Oblong: A two-dimensional shape, in which the length is between two and three times the width with the greatest width about the middle
Obturator: A wart-like protuberance of the placenta, covering the micropyle, as in many Euphorbiaceae
Orthotropous: See atropous.
Ovary: The lower part of the pistil containing the ovule(s).
Ovate: A two-dimensional shape, in which the length is between one and two times the width, with the greatest width below the middle.
Ovoid: Ovate, but tridimensional

**ovules —> seed**
	atropous(orthotropous)

Palea: A usually scarious bract of a commons receptacle (as in Compositae) or the adaxial involucral bract in the spike@lets of Gramineae. Palmate With parts or ramifications in one @plane which originate more or less from one place. (Usually incl. pedate)..
Palmati-: A prefix: palmately so.
Panicle: secondary branches (usually incl. thyrse, specifically: main and lateral axes branched in the same way, either racemos(e, or cymose).
Papilionaceous: Of flowers: zygomorphic and imbricate with one wide, upper segment, two narrower lateral ones and two narrower lower ones, the latter usually coherent or connate by their margins; as in the Papilionaceae.
Parasite: A plant growing and feeding ulpon another, usually lacking chlorophyll. A hemi-parasite is partly parasitic, partly autotrophous, and has chlorophyll.
Parietal: Of ovules: attached to the outer wall of the ovary; placenta sometimes excurrent or ridge-shaped.
Paripinnate: Pinnately compound with an even number of leaflets, usually without a terminal one.
-partite: A suffix: divided to more than half-way the midrib, but not yet compound.
Pedate: With parts or ramifications in one plane, where the larger ones originate from the basal side-nerves, the next larger from the basal sidenerves of these, and so on, superficially resembling palmate and usually included there.
Pedati-: A prefix: pedately so.
Pedicel: The flower-stalk without bracts, sometimes with bracteoles.
Peduncle: The stalk of the inflorescence: the axis between the last true leaf and the first branch (and bract) of the inflorescence.
Peltate: Round and with a stalk or attachment somewhere on its surface, usually about the middle.
Perennial: Of herbs: not dying after flowering and fruiting (here used incl. biennial).
Perianth: The floral envelopes, calyx and corolla, or the floral envelope, when these cannot be distinguished.
Pericarp: The fruit-wall.
Perigynous: Sepals, petals or tepals and usually also the stamens inserted between the plane of insertion of the ovary and its apex, i.e. more or less around the ovary on a more or less well-developed hypanthium. (The ovary may be superior to hemi-inferior).
Perisperm: See endosperm.
Petal: Free segment of the corolla.
Petaloid: Resembling a petal.
Petiole: The leaf-stalk.
Petiolule: The stalk of a leaflet.
Phylloclade: A widened, flattened and green axis, resembling a leaf.
Pinnate: With parts or ramifications in one plane, which are placed along a central axis, as in a feather.
Pinnati-: A prefix: pinnately so.
Pistil: The female organ of a flower, composed of one or more carpels.
Pistillode: A reduced pistil, without developed ovules.
Pitcher: A flask-shaped to tubular modified leaf, as in Nepenthes, Sarracenia.
Placenta: The part of the carpel which bears the ovule(s).
Plicate: Folded lengthwise with pleats.
-plinerved: A suffix: number of (sub-)equal nerves, as in triplinerved: with three (sub-)equal main nerves originating from the base of the blade.
Pod: A dry fruit derived from a single carpel, dehiscing along the dorsal and ventral sutures; seeds attached dorsally.
Pollinium: A body composed of all the pollen of an anther-locule, as in Asclepiadaceae, Orchidaceae.
Polygamous: Some flowers unisexual, others bisexual on the same or different plants.
Pseudo-: A prefix: resembling, as in pseudocarp: apparently a fruit, but composed of carpels and other parts of the flower or inflorescence. as in Ficus, Fragaria.

**flower perigynous**
	flower perigynous ovary hemi-inferior		H=hypanthium flowers perigynous ovary superior

Qno entry present

Raceme: An inflorescence with a simple, elongated rachis and pedicelled flowers. (A raceme is not necessarily racemose!).
Racemose: Of an inflorescence: branched without terminal flowers; indeterminate. (A racemose inflorescence is not necessarily a raceme!).
Rachis: The main axis of a compound leaf or inflorescence.
Radiating: Patent to all sides; in inflorescences: the outer flowers with a larger perianth than the inner.
Radicle: The first root of the embryo, usually present in the seed. N.B.: The radicle apparently always points towards the micropyle!
Raphe: In ovules and seeds: the vascular bundle between the nucellus and the funicle; the general area around it.
Receptacle: The shortened axis of the flower, often punctiform or disk-like (cf. hypanthium); the common receptacle is the shortened axis of an inflorescence (as in Compositae).
Resinous: Containing resin, a kind of latex usually becoming sticky or solid after contact with air, as in Anacardiaceae (poisonous!), Pinus.
Reticulate: Net-shaped, e.g. of venation: veins in an irregular network shaped by the numerous interconnecting branches.
Rhizome: Rootstock, part of the stem resembling a root, not covered by scales, more or less elongated and horizontal, producing shoots at one end.
Rotate: Of the corolla: the parts spreading out in one plane from the axis; wheel-shaped.
Ruminate: Of endosperm: intrusion of the testa into the endosperm, which then in transaction resembles the pattern of a cow's tooth, as in a nutmeg

Sagittate: A shape with at base two retrorse, acute lobes.
Salver-: spreading limb.
Saprophyte: A plant without chlorophyll living exclusively upon dead organic material (actually through a fungus in its basal tissues). Many plants are hemi-saprophytic, but then have chlorophyll.
Sympetalous: Having united petals. Sepals free or connate.

**sympetalous,petals connate**

free sepals	sepals connate

Thyrse: A compound inflorescence with mixed types of :)ranching: the main ones racemose, at least the ultimate ones cymose.
Tree: Woody plant with a single distinct stem, generally fairly high.
Tri-: A prefix: three, as in tri-foliolate: with three leaflets.
Tube: The fused, usually elongated part of connate sepals, petals, tepals, or filaments.
Tuber: A short, thickened part of the root or stem without scales.

Umbel: An inflorescence in which the pedicels or secondary axes originate from one point on the top of the peduncle.
Unarmed: Without spines or thorns.
Undershrub: A small shrub, often partially herbaceous, t@e ends of the branches often dying during winter or dry season.
Unguiculate: Claw-like, or having such appendages; cf. spathulate.
Unifoliolate: A compound leaf reduced to a single leaflet, usually recognizable by the articulated 'petiole', actually a petiolule and a petiole.
Unisexual: Of flowers: with one sex only, either the anthers with pollen, or the ovary with ovules. (Pistillodes or staminodes may he present!).
Urceolate: A shape: inflated and contracted at the mouth like an urn or pitcher.
Utricle: An irregularity or non-dehiscent fruit or seed enclosed in a loose. membranous pericarp or bract.

Valvate: Touching each other with the margins but not overlapping; dehiscing by valves. In aestivation usually inclusive of induplicative (q.v.).
Valve: A lid or segments of an anther or capsule after dehiscence.
Ventral: Adaxial; of a raphe: on the side of the ovule facing to the placenta.
Versatile: Of anthers: attached with a usually small joint to the filament and freely and independently movable. (Cf. adnate).
Verticillate: In a whorl.
Vine: A usually woody climber with specialized climbing-organs, e.g. tendrils, hooks, adventitious roots, etc.
Virgate: A broom-like habit, more or less densely branched with stiff, erect branches, leaves usually small.
Viviparous: Seed germinating while still attached to the plant, as in Rhizophoraceae. (Proliferous: reproducing vegetatively with the plantlets, not derived from the seed, developing on the mother-plant before falling off).

**ovules: position versus placenta**
	epitropous	apotropous
descending pendulous
raphe:	ventral	dorsal
ascending
raphe:	dorsal	ventral

Wno entry present

Xno entry present

Yno entry present

Zygomorphic: A flower which can be divided into two (sub-)equal parts by one plane only, as in an orchid; bilateral symmetric. (Usually only the perianth-segments are considered of importance).