Family Juglandaceae
Synonyms: Rhoipteleaceae APNI*
Description: Trees or shrubs, usually deciduous, monoecious or rarely dioecious; branchlets with solid or chambered pith; terminal buds brown-hairy, enclosed by scales or naked.
Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, odd- or even-pinnate; leaflets with glandular, peltate scales, often resinous and aromatic, margin serrate or rarely entire. Stipules absent.
Flowers small, unisexual, arranged in catkins, produced on the previous or current year's growth. Catkins solitary or clustered, pendulous or erect, lateral or terminal, elongate. Male flowers subtended by an entire or 3-lobed bract, bracteoles 2 or absent; perianth 2–6 lobed or absent; stamens 3–50, filaments very short or absent, anthers usually pubescent. Female flowers subtended by an entire or 3-lobed bract, bracteoles 2–3 or absent; perianth 4-lobed or absent; ovary inferior, unilocular at apex, carpels usually 2; style 1, stigmas 2, fleshy or plumose.
Fruit a drupelike nut, or rarely a samara, enclosed in a dehiscent or indehiscent husk. Seed solitary; endosperm absent; cotyledons fleshy and oily, variously lobed.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 9 genera and 60 or more species: mostly in temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Australia: 2 species (naturalized), N.S.W., Vic.
External links:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Juglandaceae, Order: Fagales)
Wikipedia This family is of economic importance, and includes edible species like pecans (Carya illinoinensis) and walnuts (Juglans species).
Text by S.F. McCune Oct 2021
Taxon concept:
| One genus in NSW: Juglans |
|
