1 | Leaves simple, entire or lobed |
1' | Leaves compound, pinnate, palmate, or 3-foliolate |
2 | Herbs |
2' | Woody plants, trees or shrubby |
3 | Flowers small, with epicalyx, without petals, with 1-5 stamens. Achenes enclosed in hard hypanthium |
3' | Flowers usually showy, without epicalyx, petals only in few species absent, stamens numerous. Drupes cohering and forming a collective fruit |
4 | Ovary or ovaries superior, not connate with the hypanthium |
4' | Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, carpels connate with the hypanthium, either entirely or at least their lower half |
5 | Flower with 1 pistil (exceptionally 2) |
5' | Flower with more than 2 pistils |
6 | Small shrubs. Leaves 3-lobed. Glands on the hypanthium outside, elongating after anthesis. Fruits dehiscent, with several seeds |
6' | Trees or shrubs. Leaves not lobed. Hypanthium without long-stalked glands. Fruit a drupe with 1 stone |
7 | Plants climbing, straggling, or creeping, rarely erect, usually armed. Stipules present. Fruits cohering as a collective, each of the juicy drupes with one stone |
7' | Erect shrubs, not armed. Stipules absent. Fruit a dehiscent follicle with several seeds (cultivated) |
8 | Simple racemes |
8' | Racemes branched and compound |
9 | Styles free. Fruits with stone-cells in mesocarp (cultivated) |
9' | Styles connate at base. Fruits without stone-cells (cultivated). |
10 | Plants with thorns (cultivated) |
10' | Plants without thorns |
11 | Upper rim of hypanthium and sepals persistent on the fruit. Ovary semi-inferior |
11' | Sepals and upper rim of hypanthium deciduous after flowering, leaving a scar on top of the fruit. Ovary inferior |
12 | Main nerves terminating in the margin |
12' | Main side-nerves not terminating in the margin |
13 | Rower with 2 carpels, in their basal half adnate to the hypanthium, but free from each other (cultivated) |
13' | Flower with up to 5 carpels, connate with each other and with the hypanthium |
14 | Evergreen. Ovary 2-celled. Fruits 1-, rarely 2-seeded, seeds thick, cotyledons thick |
14' | Deciduous. Ovary usually 3-celled (2-4). Fruits with usually 2 seeds per cell, seeds flat, cotyledons flat |
15 | Herbs |
15' | Plants with woody branches |
16 | Flowers in globular heads, without petals |
16' | Flowers not in heads. Petals present |
17 | Sepals imbricate. Male and bisexual flowers with 10-30 stamens (cultivated) |
17' | Sepals valvate. Flowers bisexual, with 2 or 3 stamens |
18 | Epicalyx absent. Pistils usually 2, remaining enclosed in the hypanthium which bears many erect spines under the calyx |
18' | Epicalyx present. Pistils on a more or less elevated torus, not completely enclosed by the spineless hypanthium |
19 | Petals yellow |
19' | Petals white (cultivated) |
20 | Achenes hidden in the hollowed, fleshy hypanthium |
20' | Drupes forming a collective fruit, on an elevated torus |