Plant Sex: Flowers bisexual.

Flowers: Actinomorphic, often 3-merous. Sepals and petals distinct, imbricate; petals in two series, often with nectaries on inner series. Sepal-like bracts subtend the flowers in Berberis Stamens TACTILE in Berberis (move when touched); anthers open by flaps. Gynoecium of one carpel. Placentation basal or parietal.

Inflorescence: Solitary and scapose (Jeffersonia) to panicles and racemes.

Fruits: Berries and follicles. Seeds"gymnospermous" in Caulophyllum, i.e. the seed bursts through the ovary wall and develops exposed.

Habit: Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials.

Leaves: Alternate or opposite; simple or pinnately compound, ternate, or 2X ternate; peltate.

Examples:

Berberis (barberries, including Mahonia, Oregon grape)

B. thunbergii

• Flowering shoots, flowers from top and bottom
• Flower L.S.
• Flower dissected

B. meadia

• Flower bud and flower
• Flower L.S.
• Flower L.S. showing nectary
• Flower - with sepals and petals removed
• Stamens showing valvate dehiscence
• Carpel in L.S. showing basal placentation
• Leaves - top and bottom
• Flowering shoot with young fruits
• Fruiting shoots

Podophyllum peltatum (mayapple)

• Flowering shoot
• Flower
• Flower L.S.
• Fruits

Caulophyllum thalictroides (blue cohosh)

• Habit of plant in flower,
• Flower close-up,
• Young fruits showing ovules bursting through ovary wall.
• Plant with mature ovules that give the plant its name "blue cohosh".

Epimedium X rubrum

• Flowers of this cultivated hybrid.

Nandina domestica

• Plant with flowers and fruits
• Flower being pollinated by syrphid fly.