Acanthaceae

Ancthus Family

-Club shaped fruit from a superior ovary

-2 or 4 seeds on launching platforms

-Fruit splits forcefully to disperse seeds

-Annuals, perennials, or shrubs

-Simple opposite leaves

-Flowers are bilaterally symmetrical

-Tubular corollas

-Justicia californica

-Chuparosa

Asclepiadaceae

Milkweed Family

-Central column of fused filaments and anthers enclosing enlarged style tip and stigma.

-Filament appendages elaborated into hoods and horns

-Petals and sepals reflexed

-Have sticky milk sap

-2 superior ovaries

-Radial symmetry with parts in 5's

-Asclepias erosa

-Desert Milkweed

Asteraceae

Sunflower Family

-Numerous tiny flowers combined in a disk-like head

-Disk flower: Radially symmetrical flowers with 5 fused petals and 5 fused stamens clustered at the center

-Ray Flower: Bilaterally symmentrical flowers look like single petals outside the disk.

-Inferior single seed ovaries

-Bracts with no sepals or sepals are pappus

-Baileya multiradiata

-Desert Marigold

Bignoniaceae

Bignonia Family

-Superior ovary, elongated similar to a bean

-Fruit splits lenghtwise to release seeds with membranous wings

-Leaves long and thin, similar to fruits

Boraginaceae

Borage Family

-Flowering stem tips coiled with flowers maturing sequentially as the coil unwinds

-Corollas 5 lobed

-Often have stiff hairs

Brassicaceae

Mustard Family

-4 sepals, 4 petals that form an X

-6 stamens: 4 tall, 2 short

-Superior ovary, long and thin with short style

-Seed pods always occur in radial pattern around stalk (raceme)

-All are edible

Cactaceae

Cactus Family

-Green stems that are flattened, fleshy, leafless

-Spines attached in areoles often with tiny sharp glochids

-Flowers with numerous petals

-Inferior ovary embedded in stem tissue

Capparaceae

Caper Family

-4 petals with slightly bilateral symmetry

-6 long curvy stamens

-Superior ovary, usually extended on stalk

Fabaceae

Legume (Bean, Pea) Family

-Flower made of banner, wings, and keel

-Superior ovary forming pea or bean-like fruits

-Pea-like pods with 2 to several seeds, usually large and spherical to ovoid

-Pinnate leaves

Fouquieriaceae

Ocotillo Family

-Tall spreading branches from a very short trunk

-Neat rows of spines on older branches

-Tubular red flowers lining the tips of branches

Hydrophyllaceae

Waterleaf Family

-Tubular corolla with 5 spreading lobes

-5 long calyx lobes

-5 stamens usually extending beyond the corolla

-style forked and usually long

Krameriaceae

Rhatany Family

-5 magenta sepals with bilateral symmetry

-3 small upright petals above the center

-4 stamens with anther pores for pollen release

-Densely branched shrubs

Lamiaceae

Mint Family

-Square stalks with simple, opposite leaves

-Aromatic

-5 fused sepals, 5 fused petals

-Irregular flowers: 2 lobes up, 3 down

-Superior ovary maturing to a fruit or 4 nutlets

Liliaceae

Lily Family

-Flowers with parts in 3's

-Sepals and petals identical (togther form perianth)

-Parallel veins in leaves

-6 stamens but may lack anthers

-Stigma has 3 lobes indicating 3 chambers in ovary

Loasaceae

Blazing Star Family

-Inferior ovary usually covered in stiff hairs

-5 petals

-5 stepals at top of ovary that remain attached to fruit

-1 style that remains attached to fruit

Malvaceae

Mallow Family

-5 separate petals

-Column of fused stamens froming a tube

-Numerous anthers

-Long style emerging above stamens and branched at tip

-Mucilaginous texture

-3-5 sepals surrounded by bracts

-Most are edible

Nyctaginaceae

Four O'Clock Family

-Perianth tube tightly enclosing superior ovary

-1 style, 1 ovary, 1 ovule (seed) per flower

Onagraceae

Evening Primrose Family

-4 petals in radial symmetry

-8 stamens (Sometimes 4-10) with large anthers

-Inferior ovary

-Different genera have stigmas with characteristic shape: hemisphere, sphere, club, long lobes

Papaveraceae

Poppy Family

-Large flower buds with 2 (sometimes 3) sepals that split and fall off as flowers open

-Superior ovary

-Short or non-exsistent style

-Enlarged stigma

-Numerous stamens

Rosaceae

Rose Family

-5 petals and 5 sepals in radial symmetry

-Saucerlike hypanthium (base of sepals, petals, and stamens are fused) surrounding numerous separate pistils

-Numerous stamens

Scrophulariaceae

Figwort Family

-Tubular corolla with bilateral symmetry

-Staminode (infertile stamen without an anther) appears as a hairy tounge lying on the corolla

-4 stamens (sometimes 2) usually curved upward to position above visiting insects

Solanaceae

Nightshade Family

-Radial symmetry with 5 petals joined to form a disk or tube, often with 5 points

-5 large anthers on a tight ring

-1 style

-1 stigma with 2 lobes

Zygophyllaceae

Caltrop Family

-Compound opposite leaves

-2,3, or 16-18 leafelets sometimes fused at base

-Stems swollen at nodes, sometimes with spiny stipules at leaf base