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~ Polygalaceae.
Habit and leaf form. Herbs (prostrate ‘subshrub’). Perennial; without conspicuous aggregations of leaves. Mesophytic, or xerophytic. Leaves subopposite to opposite; with cartilaginous margins; petiolate; simple; epulvinate. Lamina entire; subrhomboid. Leaves minutely stipulate; leaf development not ‘graminaceous’.
Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers absent. Plants hermaphrodite.
Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers solitary; axillary; very irregular. The floral irregularity involving the perianth and involving the androecium. Flowers cyclic; pentacyclic. Floral receptacle developing an androphore (inserted in a slit in the calyx). Free hypanthium absent.
Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla; 7; 2 whorled; anisomerous. Calyx 5; 1 whorled; gamosepalous; unequal but not bilabiate (‘posticously dimidiate’). Corolla 2 (anticous); 1 whorled; gamopetalous (the petals laterally connate into a slipper-like structure, hooded at the apex, externally sericeous); unequal but not bilabiate.
Androecium 8, or 9. Androecial members free of the perianth; free of one another. Androecium including staminodes. Staminodes 4–5 (posticous). Stamens 4 (anticous); diplostemonous; both alternating with and opposite the corolla members.
Gynoecium 1 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium monomerous; of one carpel; superior (apically two-winged).
Fruit non-fleshy. The fruiting carpel indehiscent; pendulous within the calyx from the apex of the gynophore, with the thin pericarp adherent to the seed. Seeds scantily endospermic. Embryo well differentiated. Embryo bent (conduplicate).
Physiology, phytochemistry. Iridoids not detected (S.R. Jensen, unpublished).
Geography, cytology. Western Australia.
Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Violiflorae (re-assigned from Rutiflorae); Violales (?). Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Polygalales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot; Superorder Rosanae; malvid. APG IV Order Brassicales.
Species 1 (Emblingia calceoliflora). Genera 1; only genus, Emblingia.
Illustrations. • Emblingia calceoliflora: Nat. Pflanzenfam. III, (1891). • Emblingia calceoliflora: von Mueller, Fragmenta 2 (1861).
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, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, genera included in each family, and classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo; Cronquist; APG). See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 25th April 2024. delta-intkey.com’.
