Polygonaceae

Plant Sex: Flowers bisexual or unisexual (plants dioecious)

Flowers: Actinomorphic. Tepals 6, sometimes in two series - appearing like sepals and petals

Inflorescence: Flowers solitary or in racemes, spikes, cymes

Fruits: Achenes, triangular or lenticular (lens-shaped) in cross-section, or a small nut. Plants that seem to be in flower may have mature fruits since the sepals are persistent.

Habit: Annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, vines or trees (in tropical regions)

Leaves: Mostly alternate, entire, with a sheath formed from the stipules at the base of the petiole called an OCHREA (pl. ochreae)

Examples:
Polygonum (smartweed)

Habit of P. coccineum in flower
Inflorescence
P. capitatum, flowers dissected
P. convolvulus, a viny species

Rumex (dock)

Infructescence of R. crispus
Closer view of young fruits (achenes).

Coccoloba uvifera (sea grape)

Habit of plant in flower
C. northropiae, another species from the Bahamas.

Rheum rhabarbarum (rhubarb)

Muehlenbeckia [Homalocladium] (tapeworm plant)

Flowers emerging at the nodes of the phylloclades of M. platyclados
M. complexa with its bizarre fleshy fruit

Fagopyrum esculentum (buckwheat)

Plant in flower.

Eriogonum (wild buckwheat)

Habit of E. latifolium in flower. There are many species of wild buckwheat in the Western U.S.
E. inflatum showing the swollen stems which give the plant its name.

Dedeckera eurekensis

Habit of plant flowering in mid summer in the Mojave desert.
Mary Dedecker examining the genus named after her!
Flowering shoots.
SEM photograph of collapsed and mature achenes.

SIUC / College of Science / Elements of Plant Systematics
URL: http://www.plantbiology.siu.edu/PLB304/Lecture14Caryop/Polygonaceae.html
Last updated: 28-Feb-08 / dln