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Forestrypedia Plant Taxonomy 

Families of Plants – A Detailed Note

Naeem Javid Muhammad Hassani 0 Comments , ,
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Table of Contents

FAMILIES OF PLANTS

Gymnosperms

[Latin < Greek gumnospermos “naked seed”> a woody vascular plant in which the ovules are carried naked on the scales of a cone, e.g. a conifer, cycad, or ginkgo]:
Families:

  1. Pinaceae
  2. Cupressaceae
  3. Gnetaceae
  4. Taxaceae



FAMILY: PINACEAE

  • Distribution:

Genera = 22                Species = 250
Widely distributed from north to south temperate zones and mountainous sub-tropical region

  • Important Genera:

    • Pinus:
      • Pinus wallichiana (Blue pine)
      • Pinus roxbrughii (Chir pine)
      • Pinus gerardiana (Chalghoza pine)
      • Pinus helipensis (Quetta pine)
    • Abies:
      • Abies pindrow (Fir)
      • Abies spectabiliz
    • Cedrus:
      • Cedrus deodara (Deodar)
    • Picea:
      • Picea smithiana (Spruce)
      • Picea spinulosa
      • Picea morinda

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Evergreen tall tree, grow in rocky and shallow soil.
    • Root: Elongated taproot, lateral roots are strongly developed for holding the tree. Root hairs are absent. Mycorrhiza present and has symbiotic relations.
    • Stem: Erect, cylindrical, branched, thick and high, lower branches longer than young ones.
    • Leaves:
      • Scale leaves
      • Foliage leaves

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence: Cone
    • Male cone: Male cone is small in size, born earlier in May on scale leaves having a female cone on elongated axis.
    • Female cone: These cones born laterally on scale leaf axis before male and bigger in size. Also reddish in color.
    • Seed: Endospermic, dry and winged.
    • Pollination: Anemophilous (describes a plant species that is pollinated by the wind)

  • Economic importance:

    • Resin and turpentine (a colorless, flammable, strong-smelling essential oil. Use: paint solvent, in medicine) production which is used in cosmetics, parasite control, and medicines.
    • Cones used to flavor beer and wines.
    • Seeds are edible (nuts)
    • The wood used as timber for making furniture and railway sleepers, etc.
    • Aesthetic value
    • The needles are used for keeping in the livestock shed
    • Conservation of soil and watershed area
    • Medicinal value
    • Decorative purposes
    • Industrial purposes ie match industry
    • Oil made from wood used as manufacturing soap, especially which control skin diseases
    • Making cases
    • Pulp (crushed wood or other materials that are used to make paper) and ply-wood (a soft wood that is used to make paper, e.g. aspen, pine, or spruce) industry as well as veneer (a thin layer of wood that is glued together with others to make plywood)

FAMILY: CUPRESSACEAE

ORDER: CONIFERALS

  • Distribution:

Genera = 10                Species = 120
Distributed to the whole world with trees shrubs are members. (Japan, South Africa, Australia, etc)

  • Important Genera:

    • Cupressus
      • Cupressus arizonica
      • Cupressus macropoda
      • Cupressus torulosa
    • Juniperus
      • Juniperus wallichiana
      • Juniperus macropoda
      • Juniperus communis
    • Thuja
      • Thuja orientalis

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Much branched, medium size, evergreen trees, and shrubs
    • Root: Taproot, long and brown in color
    • Stem: Erect, cylindrical, with long or short internodes with grayish brown color.
    • Leaves: Persistent, opposite or whorled, scaly needles, triangular

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence (the arrangement or manner in which flowers develop on a stalk): Cone; consisting of opposite or whorled stamen with a short filament.
    • Male cone: Male cone is small and terminal, auxiliary stamens are born on the lower side of margins.
    • Female cone: Terminal or lateral
    • Seed: Non-Endospermic
    • Pollination: Anemophilous (describes a plant species that is pollinated by the wind)

  • Economic importance:

    • Firewood
    • Used in shelterbelts or hedges
    • Ornamental purposes
    • Furniture making
    • Cones used to flavor beer and wines.
    • The wood used as timber construction.
    • Aesthetic value
    • Industrial purposes ie pencil manufacturing
    • Volatile oil extraction



FAMILY: GENTACEAE

ORDER: GENTATES

  • Distribution:

Genera = 3                  Species = 49

  • Important Genera:

    • Gnetum
      • Gnetum ola
      • Gnetum longifolia
      • Gnetum montanium
      • Gnetum gnemon
    • Ephedra
      • Ephedra nebrodensis
      • Ephedra wallichiana

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Small, woody, medium, evergreen shrubs climbers
    • Root: Taproot
    • Stem: Zigzag, brown in color, having nodes and internodes, much branching
    • Leaves: Simple opposite and reticulate venation

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence (the arrangement or manner in which flowers develop on a stalk): Terminal spike or cone-like
    • Fruit: Cone-like structure
    • Flower: Male flower minute, Female flower bigger in size
    • Perianth (the outer structure of a flower, made up of the corolla, the calyx, or both which are undistinguished from each other): Distinct
    • Staminate (describes plants that have stamens, especially flowers with stamens but without female parts carpels): Strobilus (the cone of a coniferous plant, or a similar cone-shaped structure in some lower plants that consists of closely packed fertile leaves bearing spore-producing organs ): Either axillary (relating to or growing in the space axil between a leaf or branch and the stem) or terminal (positioned at the tip or end of a stem, stalk, or branch) each of the stalk carries two anthers at the top
    • Ovulate (to ripen and release an egg or eggs from the ovary for possible fertilization)Strobilus: Staminate like structure arise from the axil of the bracket
    • Seed: Endospermic
    • Pollination: Anemophilous (describes a plant species that is pollinated by the wind)

  • Economic importance:

    • Used for fuelwood purposes
    • Used in soil depleted area as soil binders
    • Having medicinal value
    • Used for dying purposes
    • Young leaves and inflorescence are eaten as vegetables
    • Fibers are used for making ropes, fishing net, pulp, and paper

FAMILY: TAXACEAE

Distribution

  • This family has 5 genera and 25 spp (including 2 artificial hybrids)
  • Distributed into the northern hemisphere

Vegetative Characteristics:

Habit

  • Evergreen trees or shrubs
  • Dioecious (Taxus spp) or Monoecious (Torreya)

Root

  • Fibrous to woody

Stem

  • Bark scaly or fissured
  • Red brown to dark brown
  • Lateral branches well developed similar to leading shoots
  • Branchlets opposite or alternate
  • Wood lacking resin

Leaf (needles)

  • Simple
  • Persisting 3-4 years
  • Alternate or opposite
  • Spirally arranged but often twisted so to appear 2-ranked
  • Linear to linear – Lanceolate
  • Resin canal present or absent
  • Upper (adaxial) surface dark green
  • Lower (abaxial) surface dark green to dull yellow or yellow green
  • Single veined
  • Mid rib ridge evident on lower surface

Pollen cones/ Strobli

  • Simple or compound
  • Terminal or axillary
  • Solitary or elongate in clusters of 2-4
  • Oblong – conical 2-10 mm long.
  • Microsporophylls 3-14
  • Microsporongia 3-9

Seed cone

  • Reduced to 1-2 ovules
  • Arise at axillary on a year old branches

Seed

  • 1 per cone
  • Mature ovule or seed surrounded by an aril (aril is a fleshy part of megasporophyll that develops from the axis or apex of the ovule-bearing axillary shoot)

Chromosome number

  • As a general rule n = 12
  • Sometimes 11 (in Torreya california)
  • Rarely 7 in Amentotaxus argotaenia

Economic importance

  • Medicinal value because of the presence of poisonous alkaloid taxin
  • It bears red, fleshy, sweet-tasting aril cup which functions in the dispersal of the seed by birds
  • Firewood
  • Timber value
  • Ornamental
  • Aesthetic value



Angiosperms

[< angio- + Greek sperma “seed”> a plant in which the sex organs are within flowers and the seeds are in a fruit.]  

  1. Monocotyledons:
    1. Gramineae Genera 525                 Spp 5000
    2. Palmae Genera 200/210                      Spp 2500/3000

FAMILY: GRAMINEAE/ POACEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Cosmopolitan (describes plants or animals growing or occurring in many different parts of the world)
      • Mainly Tropic to Temperate region
      • Some of them are aquatic, some found in the extremely arid area
      • This may be found everywhere, where vegetation can grow
      • It is considered to be a 2nd largest family of monocotyledons

  • Taxonomic Classification:

      • Class: Monocotyledon
      • Order: Glumiflorae
      • Genera: 525
      • Spp: 5000
      • Distribution: Cosmopolitan

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Triticum  
      • Triticum aestirum (wheat)  
    • Oryza
      • Oryza sativa (rice) 
    • Bambusa
      • Bambusa vulgaris
    • Saccharum
      • Saccharum munja (Narr)
      • Saccharum officinarum (Sugarcane)
    • Avena
      • Avena sativa (oat)
    • Cynodon
      • Cynodon dactylon
    • Zea
      • Zea mays (maize)

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat:
      • Mostly cultivated
      • Nearly herbaceous except Bamboos
      • Maybe shrub also
    • Root: Adventitious root, fibrous
    • Stem: Aerial stem, cylindrical, hollow or fleshy with nodes and internodes.
    • Leaves: Simple, alternate, consist of a long sheath surrounding the stem
    • Venation: Parallel

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence: Inflorescence presents a complex structure. It is spike containing one or more (but not more than five) flowers. Flowers are enclosed by a pair of bracts called glumes (either of a pair of dry leaves at the base of the spikelet in an ear of a grass or cereal plant).
    • Fruit: Zygomorphic (producing identical halves only when divided along a vertical axis), incomplete, sessile (describes a leaf or flower that has no stalk but is attached directly to the stem), usually bisexual (wheat) or unisexual (maize)
    • Perianth (the outer structure of a flower, made up of the corolla, the calyx, or both which are undistinguished from each other): Absent or reduced to lodicules (a tiny scale at the base of the ovary in a grass flower) (2-3)
    • Calyx (the group of sepals, usually green, around the outside of a flower that encloses and protects the flower bud): Absent
    • Corolla (the petals of a flower collectively, forming a ring around the reproductive organs and surrounded by an outer ring of sepals): Absent
    • Androecium (the set of stamens in a single flower): 3 stamens in two whorls
    • Gynoecium (the carpels of a plant considered together): Monocarpellary (describes a flower that has only one carpel), superior, style short, stigma two wings
    • Seed: Endospermic, a single cotyledon
    • Pollination: Anemophilous (describes a plant species that is pollinated by the wind)

  • Floral Formula:

  • Economic importance:

      • Cereal crops provide food for men eg rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane, etc.
      • Sugar, the sweet juice is obtained from sugarcane.
      • It is very useful for making baskets, mats, and other different types of goods.
      • Bamboos use for decoration purpose in houses
      • It is used as a fiber for making rope
      • Grasses give great aesthetic value

    Soil binder, esp around seashore

    • Sometimes it can be used s alternate host for diseases
    • Rapor and pulp are manufactured from grasses and bamboos
    • Alcoholic production ie rum, whiskey, beer, etc from barley
    • Oil extraction, medicine, and perfumes are manufactured eg lemon grasses are used as a lemon tea

  • Floral Diagram:

 FAMILY: PALMAE

  • Distribution:

      • It is generally distributed throughout the tropic and extending somewhat in the warmer parts of the temperate zone.
      • Some of its genera are semi-aquatic
      • The smaller spp are extensively grown in greenhouse.

  • Taxonomic Classification:

      • Class: Monocotyledon
      • Order: Principes
      • Genera: 200-210
      • Spp: 2500-3000

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Phoenix 
      • Phoenix dactilifera (khajoor)
      • Phoenix sylyestris
    • Areca  
      • Areca catechu
    • Cocus
      • Cocus nucifera (coconut)
    • Caryota
      • Caryota urens (Toddy palm)

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat:
      • Mostly tall evergreen tree
      • Some of them are of great height, but there are considerable number of shrubs
      • Mostly unbranched tree
    • Root: Mostly fibrous adventitious root. Primary root short-lived
    • Stem: Aerial stem. Some time underground. Columnar tall, sometimes scandent (describes a plant that climbs as it grows). Light crown
    • Leaves: Mostly large in a terminal crown, usu compound, and thick leathery and sharp at an apex of leaves.
    • Venation: Parallel

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence:
      •  It is racemose (describes any pyramidal or flat-topped flower cluster in which the youngest flowers develop nearest the tip of the main stem or main side branches. Examples include the panicle, corymb, umbel, and capitulum, as well as the raceme) type.
      • The inflorescence is usu larger in size and profusely branched.
    • Fruit: Actinomorphic (spreading out symmetrically around a central point and so making identical halves when divided along any vertical axis. Tulips and starfish are actinomorphic), Sessile. Mostly unisexual sometimes bisexual. Very small in size and large in number.
    • Perianth (the outer structure of a flower, made up of the corolla, the calyx, or both which are indistinguished from each other): Perianth leaves are 6 in number, in two whorls of (3+3), sometimes more than 6.
    • Calyx (the group of sepals, usually green, around the outside of a flower that encloses and protects the flower bud): Absent
    • Corolla (the petals of a flower collectively, forming a ring around the reproductive organs and surrounded by an outer ring of sepals): Absent
    • Androecium (the set of stamens in a single flower): Stamens usu 6 in two whorls of 3 each. Filaments are very short. Absent in Female flowers.
    • Gynoecium (the carpels of a plant considered together): Absent in male flowers. Tricarpillary (3 carpels). Syncarpous (describes the female reproductive parts gynoecium of a flower in which the carpels are fused). Ovary superior. Style short
    • Fruit: Fleshy or fibrous berry
    • Seed: Endospermic, rounder, angular

  • Floral Formula:

  • Economic importance:

    • Fruit purpose (dry fruit)
    • Good soil binder, soil conservation
    • Aesthetic value
    • Cottage industry
    • Fruits of date palm are eaten
    • Commercial purpose (coconut oil, vegetable ghee, soap factory, mat, bushes)
    • Terminal buds used in vegetables
    • Alcoholic drink
    • Sometimes stem is used as timber

  • Floral Diagram:




2. DICOTYLEDONS:
These are important families of Dicotyledons.

  1. Salicaceae
  2. Betulaceae
  3. Fagaceae
  4. Moraceae
  5. Rosaceae
  6. Leguminosae
  7. Meliaceae
  8. Anacardiaceae
  9. Saplndaceae
  10. Salvadoraceae
  11. Hippocastanaceae
  12. Rhamnaceae
  13. Tamaricaceae
  14. Myrtaceae
  15. Oleaceae

FAMILY: SALICACEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Archichlamydeae
      • Order: Salicales
      • Genera: 2
      • Spp: 340
    • It is widely distributed but mostly found in temperate and cold regions/ northern hemispheres, common in Kashmir valley.

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Poplus 
      • Poplus alba
      • Poplus nigra
      • Populus euphratica
      • Poplus ciliate
      • Poplus trumuloids
    • Salix 
      • Salix alba
      • Salix tetrasperma
      • Salix hastate
      • Salix wallichiana
      • Salix cupiea

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Mostly tree, shrubs, and herbs
    • Root: Taproot, branched
    • Stem: Erect, buds are large, scaly and prominent
    • Leaves: Alternate, simple, deciduous, small petiole (Salix) long petioles (Poplar)

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence:
      • Catkin (inflorescence having a long hanging furry cluster of tiny leaves and flowers without petals, produced by trees such as willows, birches, alders, and poplars); Pendulous (hanging loosely or swinging freely) or erect
      • These catkins appear before leaves in poplar or with leaves in salix.
      • The plant is dioecious (having male and female flowers on different plants of the same species)
    • Flower: Small, naked, unisexual, dioecious, membranous, bracteoles (an organ resembling a leaf or scale that arises from a branch of a flower cluster where the flowers develop, and where the entire cluster itself develops above a bract) absent.
    • Perianth (the outer structure of a flower, made up of the corolla, the calyx, or both which are undistinguished from each other)
      • Perianth absent (0) or reduced
      • Small disc and one or more glands in Salix
      • Cup or bell-shaped disc in poplar
    • Androecium (the set of stamens in a single flower):
      • Two or more in male flower
      • Filaments free or partially united
      • Anthers 2 celled
    • Gynoecium:
      • 2-4 carpels (united)
      • Ovary superior (one-celled)
      • Ovule few or many
      • Style (an extension of a flower’s ovary, shaped like a stalk, that supports the stigma) absent
      • Stigma (the part of a flower’s female reproductive organ carpel that receives the male pollen grains. It is generally located at the tip of a slender stalk-shaped projection style) 2 to 4
    • Fruit: Non-endospermic, silky hairs
    • Pollination: Anemophilous; Entomophilous (describes flowering plants that are pollinated by insects)

  • Floral Formula:

Male Flower:
Female Flower:

  • Economic importance:

    • Good fuelwood
    • Timber (soft, very easy to work); light durable wood
    • Industrial purposes (pulp and paper)
    • Charcoal
    • Sports industries (sports goods, cricket bats, chairs manufacturing), small pieces of wood can also be utilized
    • Ornamental value
    • Basket making
    • Fodder (both poplar and salix)
    • Wood may be used in chipboard industry
    • Soil erosion control
    • Salicylic acid (a white crystalline acid. Use: as a preservative, in the manufacture of aspirin and dyes. Formula: C7H6O3) is obtained from salix
    • Can be used in shelterbelts, in the linear plantation, and as an agroforestry crop.

  • Floral Diagram:

FAMILY: MORACEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Archichlamydeae
      • Order: Urticales
      • Genera: 55
      • Spp: 1000
      • Largely distributed in the tropical region but there are numerous spp in temperate parts of the world.

  • Representative Genera + Spp:

    • Morus 
      • Morus alba
      • Morus nigra
      • Morus indica
    • Ficus
      • Ficus roxburghii
      • Ficus elastica
      • Ficus elaveta
    • Cannabis
      • Cannabis sativa
    • It is widely distributed but mostly found in temperate and cold regions/ northern hemispheres, common in Kashmir valley.

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Mostly trees, shrubs, and herbs
    • Root: Taproot, branched
    • Stem: Erect, woody, branched, gum may be exuded from surface
    • Leaves: Alternate, stipulate, simple leaves are present, lobes are also present.

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence:
      • Catkin (inflorescence having a long hanging furry cluster of tiny leaves and flowers without petals, produced by trees such as willows, birches, alders, and poplars); or un hypanthodium plant, monoecious (describes a plant that has separate male and female flowers)
    • Flower: Small, incomplete, unisexual, tetramerous (with four parts, or with parts arranged in multiples of four)
    • Male flower:
      • Perianth: 4 in two whorls united and inferior
      • Androecium: Stamen 4-5, opposite to Perianth 2 celled anther.
    • Female flower:
      • Perianth: Four in two whorls
      • Gynoecium: Carpels 2, Syncarpous (describes the female reproductive parts gynoecium of a flower in which the carpels are fused) ovary, superior ovule; Stigma (the part of a flower’s female reproductive organ carpel that receives the male pollen grains. It is generally located at the tip of a slender stalk-shaped projection style) 1-2 piliform
      • Symmetry: Actinomorphic
    • Fruit: An achene (a dry single-seeded fruit that does not open to release its seed. Dandelions and sunflowers have achenes), drupe (a fruit with a thin outer skin, soft pulpy middle, and hard stony central part that encloses a seed. Apricots, plums, cherries, and almonds are drupes) or nut
    • Seed: Endospermic
    • Pollination: Anemophilous; Entomophilous (describes flowering plants that are pollinated by insects)

  • Floral Formula:

Male Flower:
Female Flower:

  • Economic importance:

    • Edible fruits
    • Rubber is obtained from the latex (a milky white liquid produced by some plants such as the rubber tree, whose sap is used to make rubber) of the rubber plant.
    • Leaves of mulberry are used for rearing silkworm.
    • Ornamental
    • Soil erosion control, shelterbelts
    • Shedding purposes
    • Oil of Bhang (Cannabis sativa) is used in the making of paints, varnishes, and soaps.
    • Drugs from Bhang (Cannabis sativa)
    • Veneer and plywood manufacturing
    • Timber and furniture
    • Wood is used in the sports industry  and bark in the paper industry
    • Oil is obtained from Bhang seeds

  • Floral Diagram:



FAMILY: ROSACEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Archichlamydeae
      • Order: Rosales
      • Genera: 115
      • Spp: 3200
    • It is widely distributed in temperate regions.
    • Very common in Northern Himalaya

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Rosa   
      • Rosa alba
      • Rosa indica
    • Pyrus
      • Pyrus persica
      • Pyrus communis
    • Prunus
      • Prunus pados
      • Prunus cerasoide  
    • Fragana
      • Fragana vesca
    • Potentilla 
      • Potentilla supina 

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat:
      • Very diverse habitat
      • Two family includes a large group of trees, shrubs, or climbers
    • Root: Taproot, branched
    • Stem:
      •  Erect, Branched, herbaceous, hard and woody
      • Many shrubs have spines
      • Running and trailing habit also present, among both herbaceous and woody spp
      • Venation: Lanceolate (tapering to a point like the head of a lance) reticulate (venation having network structure)
      • Leaves: Simple or compound; Alternate, stipulate (describes a stem or stalk that has a pair of growths resembling leaves stipules at the base), petioles

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence:
      • Flower solitary or grouped
      • In a racemose or cymose manner
      • In trees, flowers appear earlier than leaf
    • Flower: Regular, Bisexual, Pentamerous (describes flowers that have petals or other parts such as sepals or stamens arranged in groups of five) or tetramerous (with four parts, or with parts arranged in multiples of four), complete, pedicellate, hypogynous (describes a flower that has its petals, sepals, or other parts situated below and apart from its ovary), perigynous (describes a flower that has petals, stamens, and sepals arranged around a cup-shaped receptacle that contains the ovary, as have the flowers of cherries and roses) or epigynous (describes a flower in which the sepals, petals, and stamens arise from the enlarged tip of the flower axis receptacle above the ovary)
    • Calyx: Sepal (5), valvate (describes sepals or petals that touch but do not overlap in the bud), green some have 4 sepals
    • Corolla: Petals 5 or numerous in multiple of 5, free white, red, yellow, and blue (rarely)
    • Androecium (the set of stamens in a single flower):
      • Stamens (1 – µ), free.
      • Arranged in many whorls of five each
      • Anthers small
    • Gynoecium:
      • Carpels (1 – µ) free or united, monocarpellary usu apocarps (describes a flower that has separate carpels), superior or inferior, ovules are two in each carpel.
    • Seed: Non-endospermic, an embryo with fleshy cotyledons
    • Fruit: Non-endospermic, silky hairs
    • Pollination: Mostly Entomophilous (describes flowering plants that are pollinated by insects)
  • Floral Formula:

 Eg Rosa indica

  • Economic importance:

    • These plants are used for ornamental purposes
    • Firewood production
    • Erosion control
    • Timber value
    • Agricultural Implements
    • Furniture
    • Alcohol production
    • Manufacture of Jam from apple
    • Apiculture (Beekeeping)
    • Oil extraction from almond
    • Some are edible fruits eg apples, pears, peaches, apricots
    • Rose water floride, which is used for medicines and perfumes
    • Hence this cosmopolitan family (describes plants or animals growing or occurring in many different parts of the world) is very much rich in its contribution to the pleasure as well as the welfare of mankind.
  • Floral Diagram:

FAMILY: LEGUMINOSAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Archichlamydeae
      • Order: Rosales
      • Sub-Family: Papiliunatae
      • Genera: 550
      • Spp: 12000 – 13000
    • Cosmopolitan (Found everywhere)
    • Found extremely in varied soil and climate conditions
    • Most abundant in the temperate region
    • Commonly known as pea family.

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Cassia
      • Cassia fistula
      • Cassia ilaoca  
    • Bauhinia
      • Bauhinia vanblii
      • Bauhinia purpurea
    • Acacia
      • Acacia nilotica
      • Acacia modesta
      • Acacia senegal
    • Albizzia
      • Albizzia lebbek
      • Albizzia procera
    • Prosopis
      • Prosopis cineraria
    • Dalbergia
      • Dalbergia sissoo

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Trees, shrubs, and herbs. They are aquatic, xerophytic, and mesophytic
    • Root: Taproot branched with root nodules.
    • Stem: Erect, Climbing, woody
    • Leaves: Simple or compound, pinnate, bipinnate alternate

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence:
      • Racemose but spike and panicles
      • Occasionally they are solitary
    • Flower: Generally Zygomorphic, Bisexual, Hypogynous, complete
    • Calyx: Sepals are 5, 4 are united.
    • Corolla: Petals are 5, usu free
    • Androecium:
      • Ten or more [A5 + 5] or [A (n) + 1]
      • More or less united in a tube
    • Gynoecium:
      • Unilocular (having a single loculus, cell, or cavity), free
      • Ovary superior
      • Monocarpellary
    • Fruit: Legume or pod like
    • Seeds: Non-endospermic, straight embryo

  • Floral Formula:

Mostly:
Rarely:

  • Economic importance:

    • Good and valuable timber for building construction as well as furniture making.
    • Good fuelwood
    • Medicinal value
    • Natural fertilizers
    • Increase soil fertility by nitrogen fixation
    • Charcoal
    • Apiculture
    • Ornamental value
    • Dyes Fencing (Acacia nilotica)
    • Gums (Acacia nilotica)
    • Oil from seed which is edible (also vegetable ghee), etc
    • Ornamental value
    • Fodder crop for domestic animals.
    • Soil erosion control
    • Can be used in shelterbelts acting as windbreaks

  • Floral Diagram:

FAMILY: HIPPOCASTANCEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Archichlamydeae
      • Order: Sapindales
      • Genera: 2
      • Spp: 18 – 24
    • Tropical warm and temperate regions

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Aesculus
      • Aesculus indica
      • Aesculus pervea
      • Aesculus carvea
    • Billia
      • Billia spp

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Trees or shrubs, deciduous
    • Root: Taproot system + adventitious roots having root hairs
    • Stem/ Shoot: Erect, woody, regular or irregular
    • Leaves: compound, leaflets 3 – 9, ex-stipulate petiolate

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence:
      • Thyrsus/ Thyrse (a flower head that consists of numerous branching clusters of individual flowers arising from a single main stem, e.g. in lilacs)
    • Flower: Zygomorphic, irregular, complete
    • Calyx: Sepals 5, united. or free
    • Corolla: Petals 5, usu free
    • Androecium: Various stamens (5-8), distinct, hypogenous
    • Gynoecium: Carpels 3, ovary ovule united hypogynous
    • Fruit: Capsule, some spp have spiny or smooth
    • Seeds: Non-endospermic
    • Pollination: Entomophilous

  • Floral Formula:

  • Economic importance:

    • Timber value
    • Firewood and fodder
    • MedicinaPurposeses
    • Bucket and bow
    • Furniture purposes
    • Soil erosion control
    • Ornamental value

  • Floral Diagram:



FAMILY: RHAMNACEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Archichlamydeae
      • Order: Rhamnales
      • Genera: 45
      • Spp: 500 – 550
    • Widely distribution in Tropical and Temperate climate but in cold climate/ region.

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Zizyphus
      • Zizyphus lotus
      • Zizyphus jujuba

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Trees, shrubs, and herbs, climbers
    • Root: Taproot
    • Stem: Usu erect (sometimes weak) woody and cylindrical
    • Leaves: Simple alternate or the opposite, stipulate, deciduous, entire (describes leaves with smooth edges that are not lobed or indented) or sometimes toothed.
    • Venation: Reticulate

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence:
      • Racemose corymb, ryme
    • Flower: Small, mostly in axillary, complete, usu bisexual, epigynous, perigynous, small, yellowish green
    • Calyx: Sepals are 5 or 4, united, valvate (describes sepals or petals that touch but do not overlap in the bud)
    • Corolla: Petals are 4 or5, rarely inserted in the calyx tube
    • Androecium: Stamens 4 – 5, opposite to the concave, anther 2 celled
    • Gynoecium:
      • Carpels 2 – 4, ovary sessile
      • Ovary superior or inferior, style short
      • Simple stigma-free or united
    • Fruit: Drupe or capsule
    • Seeds: Endospermic, straight embryo
    • Pollination: Entomophilous

  • Floral Formula:

  • Economic importance:

    • Fine charcoal is produced
    • Medicinal value
    • Edible fruits
    • Dyes for coloring silk goods
    • The bark of Zizyphus is used (more used by tanners)
    • Blackening (the shoemakers used is blackening shoes)
    • Ornamental purposes
    • Substitute for soap

  • Floral Diagram:

FAMILY: TAMARICACEAE/ PAMARICACEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Archichlamydeae
      • Order: Paritales
      • Genera: 4
      • Spp: 100
    • Found at steppe, desert, and seashores, mostly in the Mediterranean region and central Asia.

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Tamarix
      • Tamarix aphylla
      • Tamarix dioca
      • Tamarix gallica
      • Tamarix troupil

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Evergreen woody trees, shrubs and perennial herbs, halophytic or xerophytic
    • Root: Taproot, deep feeder
    • Stem: Erect, cylindrical, woody, rough
    • Leaves: Simple, alternate, scale-like triangular in shape (needle-like) small and narrow sessile, entire exstipulate.

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence: Solitary or racemose (catkin-like) in some spp have spike and panicle.
    • Flower: Regular, Bisexual, Pentamerous,  and tetramerous (with four parts, or with parts arranged in multiples of four)
    • Corolla: Petals are 5, free imbricate (describes a plant or animal parts that overlap in a regular pattern), inserted on reception.
    • Androecium:
      • Stamens as many as petals or twice the number, anther 2 celled
    • Gynoecium:
      • Carpels 5-2, united, hypogynous long style inferior.
    • Fruit: Capsule
    • Seeds: Hairy with or without endospermic
    • Pollination:

  • Floral Formula:

  • Economic importance:

    • Timber, Fuelwood of low quality
    • Ornamental purposes
    • Fodder for domestic animals
    • Fruit edible
    • Dyes
    • It can be grown in deserts
    • It can be used as nurse crops where no vegetation growing
    • Shelterbelt in sand dunes
    • Twigs are used for making baskets
    • For the river embankment (control of water erosion)
    • Multiple trees
    • Can be used in Avenue planting
    • Some spp produce hardwood as timber
    • It provides wood suitable for plow making
    • It can resist extreme temperature
    • Plants are planted for the reclamation of saline and waterlogged soil area.

  • Floral Diagram:

FAMILY: MYRTACEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Archichlamydeae
      • Order: Myrtiflora
      • Genera: 30
      • Spp: 3000
    • It is widely distributed in the tropical and sub-tropical regions.

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Eucalyptus
      • Eucalyptus citerodora
      • Eucalyptus globulus
      • Eucalyptus microtheca
      • Eucalyptus camaldulensis  
    • Myrtus
      • Myrtus communis
    • Punica
      • Punica granatum
    • Psidium
      • Psidium granatum

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Woody trees, shrubs, rarely herbs and climbers
    • Root: Taproot, branched
    • Stem: Erect, cylindrical, woody, branched
    • Leaves: Simple, ox-stipulate, generally entire, usu opposite, alternate, evergreen
    • Venation: Reticulate

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence: Usually cymose, rarely racemose, sometimes solitary
    • Flower: Regular, Bisexual, Perigynous (describes a flower that has petals, stamens, and sepals arranged around a cup-shaped receptacle that contains the ovary, as have the flowers of cherries and roses) or epigynous (describes a flower in which the sepals, petals, and stamens arise from the enlarged tip of the flower axis receptacle above the ovary), complete
    • Calyx: Sepals are 4-5, superior, free or united, persistent (in Eucalyptus) or deciduous
    • Corolla: Petals are 4-5  or 0 (rarely absent), free, sometimes united, imbricate (describes plant or animal parts that overlap in a regular pattern), superior valvate
    • Androecium: Stamens numerous, inserted or disc
    • Gynoecium: Carpels 2-5, united (Syncarpous) inferior (epigynous)
    • Fruit: Berry, Capsule, Drupe
    • Seeds: Non-endospermic
    • Placentation: Axial, style, simple
    • Pollination: Entomophilous

  • Floral Formula:

  • Economic importance:

    • Timber a quite strong eg Eucalyptus
    • Edible fruits
    • Aromatic oil
    • Volatile Oils
    • Medicinal values
    • Ornamental purposes
    • Gum and resin production form eucalyptus leaves
    • Pulp use for jelly
    • Tanning
    • Shelterbelts
    • Roadside plantation
    • Paper and pulp manufacturing
    • Apiculture
    • Used in cosmetic goods

  • Floral Diagram:



 FAMILY: OLEACEAE

  • Distribution:

      • Sub-Class: Metachlamydeae
      • Order: Oleales
      • Genera: 22
      • Spp: 500
    • Temperate, tropical (warm), subtropical regions

  • Important Genera + Spp:

    • Olea
      • Olea cuspidata
      • Olea robusta
      • Olea wallichiana
      • Olea europeana
    • Jasminum
      • Jasminum humile
      • Jasminum sambae
    • Springa
      • Springa emodi

  • Vegetative Characteristics:

    • Habitat: Medium size, evergreen trees, woody, shrubs, sometimes climber
    • Root: Taproot system
    • Stem: Erect, cylindrical, woody, smooth when young
    • Leaves: Simple, exstipulate, always opposite (except Jasminum), alternate, compound sometime stipulate, entire or toothed

  • Floral Characteristics:

    • Inflorescence: Cymose or compound racemose
    • Flower: Regular, rarely unisexual tetramerous
    • Calyx: Sepals are 4-5, small, more or less united persistent, valvate or imbricate
    • Corolla: 4-5  or more petals, united, valvate, imbricate, rarely free
    • Androecium: Stamens 2, sometimes 4, anther 2 celled
    • Gynoecium: Carpels 2, Syncarpous (United), ovary superior, 2 celled, style are short, simple stigma
    • Fruit: Variable, capsule or drupe
    • Seeds: Non-endospermic, oily, endospermic
    • Pollination: Entomophilous

  • Floral Formula:

  • Economic importance:

    • Ornamental purposes
    • Medicinal value
    • Perfumes
    • Oil production for cooking and other medicinal purposes. (Oil of olive is very hygienic and expensive)
    • Excellent timber
    • Furniture making
    • Dye
    • Sugar
    • Fodder
    • Watershed protection/mgt
    • Can be used for reforestation

  • Floral Diagram:

Image: SERC-Carleton

For correction and improvements please use the comments section below.


Naeem Javid Muhammad Hassani
Naeem Javid Muhammad Hassani is working as Conservator of Forests in Balochistan Forest & Wildlife Department (BFWD). He is the CEO of Tech Urdu (techurdu.net) Forestrypedia (forestrypedia.com), All Pak Notifications (allpaknotifications.com), Essayspedia, etc & their YouTube Channels). He is an Environmentalist, Blogger, YouTuber, Developer & Vlogger.
https://forestrypedia.com/
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