What’s a dichotomous key?
Help
- Group 1Lycophytes, Monilophytes
- Group 2Gymnosperms
- Group 3Monocots
- Group 4Woody angiosperms with opposite or whorled leaves
- Group 5Woody angiosperms with alternate leaves
- Group 6Herbaceous angiosperms with inferior ovaries
- Group 7Herbaceous angiosperms with superior ovaries and zygomorphic flowers
- Group 8Herbaceous angiosperms with superior ovaries, actinomorphic flowers, and 2 or more distinct carpels
- Group 9Herbaceous angiosperms with superior ovaries, actinomorphic flowers, connate petals, and a solitary carpel or 2 or more connate carpels
- Group 10Herbaceous angiosperms with superior ovaries, actinomorphic flowers, distinct petals or the petals lacking, and 2 or more connate carpels
- You are here:
- Dichotomous Key
- Malvaceae
Malvaceae
See list of 16 genera in this family-
1b. Plants herbaceous or shrubs to 6 m tall in Hibiscus syriacus; inflorescence without an adnate bract; stamens monadelphous; fruit a capsule or schizocarp
-
2a. Gynoecium with 5 wholly connate carpels [Fig. 719]; fruit a capsule; filaments connate, forming a tube, bearing anthers along the sides of the tube [Fig. 719], crowned with 5 teeth at the summit of the filament tube
-
3a. Epicalyx with 3, ovate, laciniately toothed bractlets; styles short, the stigmas almost sessile on the ovary; petals white; seeds covered with long, white hairs
-
3b. Epicalyx with (6–) 8–15 linear, entire bractlets; style branches elongate, clearly elevating the stigmas above the ovary; petals yellow, pink, red-pink, blue, light purple, or white (when white usually with a red or purple base); seeds without long hairs
-
4a. Calyx connate for most of its length, splitting on one side and early deciduous; mature fruit 6–25 cm long, more than 2 times as long as wide
-
4b. Calyx basally connate for ca. ½ its length, not splitting, persistent in fruit; mature fruit 1–3.5 cm long, less than 2 times as long as wide
-
-
-
2b. Gynoecium with 5–40 basally connate carpels [Figs. 718,721]; fruit a schizocarp, the carpels separating at maturity into indehiscent or dehiscent mericarps; filaments connate, forming a tube, bearing anthers primarily near the apex (along the sides in Lavatera) [Fig. 720], without teeth at summit of filament tube
-
-
6a. Gynoecium with (5–) 10–15 (–30) carpels, mature carpels each with 3–9 seeds and terminated by a slender, solitary beak 3–6 mm long; petals 7–13 mm long, yellow; leaf blades entire to crenate, with or without low, obscure lobes
-
7a. Gynoecium with (5–) 10–15 (–30) carpels, the mature ones terminated by a slender beak 3–6 mm long and with 3–9 seeds; leaf blades (5–) 10–15 (–20) cm long, broad-ovate to orbicular
-
7b. Gynoecium with 6–8 carpels, the mature ones terminated by a slender apiculus mostly 0.5–1 mm long and with 3 seeds; leaf blades 3–7 cm long, ovate
-
-
6b. Gynoecium with 5–12 (–15) carpels, mature carpels each with 1 seed and either lacking a beak or terminated by 1 or 2 beaks up to 3 mm long; petals 3–10 mm long, white, yellow, or pink to light purple or light blue-purple; leaf blades conspicuously lobed (merely toothed in Sida spinosa)
-
8a. Plants dioecious (i.e., with unisexual flowers on separate plants); styles with the stigmatic surface along the inner surface; mature carpels apically beakless or minutely apiculate
-
8b. Plants synoecious (i.e., with bisexual flowers); styles with the stigmatic surface at the capitate apex; mature carpels apically terminated by 1 or 2 erect beaks
-
9b. Petals pink to light purple or light blue-purple; lateral walls of separating mericarps eventually disintegrating
-
-
-
-
10a. Styles with the stigmatic surface at the capitate apex; mature carpels 2-beaked at the apex, each with 2 seeds (1 seed in Malvastrum)
-
11a. Petals yellow; leaf blades coarsely toothed or with inconspicuous lobes
-
11b. Petals red to red-purple; leaf blades evidently lobed
-
12a. Petals 3–8 mm long; flowers mostly solitary or paired in the axils of leaves; terminal lobe of leaf blade only slightly exceeding the adjacent lateral lobes
-
12b. Petals 8–13 mm long; flowers (1–) 2–12 from the axils of leaves; terminal lobe of leaf blade elongate, more than 2 times as long as the adjacent lateral lobes
-
-
-
10b. Styles with the stigmatic surface along the inner surface; mature carpels beakless, each with a single seed
-
13a. Epicalyx with 3 bractlets that are wholly distinct (connate in Lavatera); gynoecium with 8–15 (–20) carpels
-
14a. Bractlets of epicalyx distinct; mericarps not covered by an expansion of the central axis of the fruit at maturity
-
14b. Bractlets of epicalyx connate at base; mericarps covered by a disk-like expansion of the central axis of the fruit at maturity (i.e., in fruit)
-
-
13b. Epicalyx with 6–9 bractlets that are connate at the base; gynoecium with 15–40 carpels
-
15a. Petals 30–50 mm long; staminal tube pentagonal in cross-section, glabrous; mericarps divided by an internal septum into an upper and lower locule, the upper locule empty
-
15b. Petals 15–20 mm long; staminal tube terete in cross-section, pubescent; mericarps unilocular
-
-
-
-
-
Show photos of: Each photo represents one genus in this family.
Abelmoschus esculentus
Abutilon pictum
Alcea rosea
Althaea officinalis
Anoda cristata
Gossypium hirsutum
Hibiscus syriacus
Lavatera trimestris
Malva alcea
Malvastrum coromandelianum
Modiola caroliniana
Napaea dioica
Pseudabutilon stuckertii
Sida hermaphrodita
Sphaeralcea mendocina
Tilia cordata