Ericaceae

Abstract

Evergreen or deciduous shrubs, rarely scandent, lianes, or trees, epiphytic or not, or herbs, rarely achlorophyllous and/or rhizomatous; hair roots present, with investing mycorrhizal fungal hyphae forming a loose covering over hair roots and penetrating only the outer cortical cells; indumentum unicellular and multicellular hairs, or unicellular hairs only, or rarely none; terminal bud scaly, rarely naked, or aborting; leaves spiral, opposite or whorled, entire or serrate, rarely margins strongly revolute and leaves needle-like (“ericoid”), exstipulate; inflorescences terminal or axillary, usually racemose; prophylls paired, rarely 0; flowers rarely single, rarely multibracteolate, usually conspicuous, hermaphroditic, rarely unisexual, poly-symmetrical, rarely monosymmetrical, sepals (2−)4–5(−7), fused at the very base, petals (3)4–5(−7), fused, rarely free or fused as a cap; stamens (2−)5(−8), 10(−16), free from the corolla, rarely adnate; anthers tetrasporangiate, rarely bisporangiate, inverting during development, with 2(4) apparently terminal or dorsal appendages or not, dehiscence introrse or terminal, rarely latrorse or extrorse, with pores or short, rarely long slits or a slit; endothecium lacking, rarely present; pollen in tetrahedral tetrads or rarely in monads; nectary present, rarely absent; ovary superior to inferior, (1−)4–5(−12)-carpellate, placentation axile to intruded parietal, rarely apical or basal; ovules (1−)numerous/carpel, anatropous to subcampylotropous, unitegmic, tenuinucellate; style usually about as long as corolla, hollow, rarely expanded at the apex; stigma punctate to lobed; fruit a berry, drupe, or capsule, rarely calyx fleshy; seeds small to minute, testa usually single-layered, variously winged or not; embryo straight, fusiform, rarely embryo minute, undifferentiated; endosperm cellular, fleshy, well developed, with haustoria at both ends; germination epigeal.