Family Tropaeolaceae
Description: Annual or perennial herb, often scrambling or climbing, slightly succulent; sap watery.
Leaves usually alternate, often peltate; petioles long and sometimes aiding in climbing; stipules present, sometimes minute. Flowers zygomorphic, bisexual, 5-merous.
Inflorescence of solitary pedunculate flowers in leaf axils. Calyx of 5 fused sepals, 1 produced into a nectar-bearing spur. Corolla of 5 free petals or rarely only 2, showy, clawed; petals entire or lobed. Stamens 8; filaments filiform; anthers small, basifixed and laterally dehiscing. Carpels 3, fused; ovary superior, 3-locular, with 1 ovule per loculus.
Fruit of 3 indehiscent nutlets or rarely fleshy.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 2 genera, c. 100 species, America. Australia: 1 genus, 1 species
External links:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (Family: Tropaeolaceae, Order: Brassicales)
Wikipedia
Text by B. J. Conn
Taxon concept:
| One genus in NSW: Tropaeolum |
|
