Index of Families
If you want to go immediately to posts featuring a specific plant family, click on the family name in the following list. Otherwise, use the Description, Identification, and Example notes as review – these notes are very simple and would be difficult if not misleading to use as a standalone identification tool.
You can download a simple plant profile to take notes in the field. A key to nine of these families, using vegetative characteristics only, can be downloaded here. For a list of books that are useful in plant identification, please click on the References tab.
Description: “This is a family that includes several genera of plants with tubular flowers designed to be pollinated by hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths, all of which can reach the nectar with their long bills or proboscii.” (kingsnake) Mostly herbs or shrubs comprising about 250 genera and 2,500 species. (wikipedia)
Identification: Herbs, shrubs, or twining vines. Leaves are simple and opposite with each pair being at right angles to the pair below. Without stipules. The leaves may contain calcium carbonate concretions seen as streaks on the surface. (wikipedia)
Examples: red shrimp plant, Aphelandra
Apocynaceae – the dogbane family
Description: This is one of the families that has in recent years undergone some major taxonomic revision. It now includes the family Asclepiadaceae [see next listing]. Because most of my books still separate Asclepiadaceae from Apocynaceae, I’ve assigned any plant in the Asclepiadaceae family to both families for the purpose of this index.
Many of these plants possess deadly toxins. However, they are notorious for being the larval food plant of a number of insects. Particularly, some sphynxid moths’ caterpillars incorporate the plants’ alkaloids to their own tissues, thus becoming toxic themselves. (kingsnake) The family, including the Asclepiadaceae, includes some 1500 species divided in about 424 genera. (wikipedia).
Identification: Trees, climbers, shrubs. Leaves may be in whorls, alternate, or opposite, but mostly opposite or whorled. Flowers cymose (a cluster where central flower develops first), regular, bisexual.
Examples: trumpet vine (Mandevilla hirsuta), Plumeria sp., Allamanda sp., Vinca sp.
Asclepiadaceae – the milkweed family
Description: According to APG II, the Asclepiadaceae is a former plant family now treated as a subfamily (subfamily Asclepiadoideae) in the Apocynaceae (Bruyns 2000). (wikipedia) Milkweeds and many of their relations produce a toxic white latex that has earned them their common names. Asclepias curassavica is common in the Antilles, and is known to be the main food source for the (also toxic) butterflies of the genus Danaus (the monarch and its relatives). Several members of the family develop their seeds in dry pods. The seeds often have fluffy tufts of hair that allow them to be dispersed by the wind. (kingsnake) There are 348 genera, with about 2900 species. They are mainly located in the tropics to subtropics, especially in Africa and South America. (wikipedia)
Identification: Opposite, simple leaves; milky juice; irregular, crown-like flowers
Examples: tropical milkweed
Asteraceae – the aster, daisy, or sunflower family
Description: The Asteraceae is the second largest family of dicots, with some 1,100 genera and over 20,000 recognized species. Only the orchid family (Orchidaceae) is larger, with about 25,000 described species. (wikipedia) Members of this Cosmopolitan group are characterized by the structure of their inflorescences. In most cases, an asteracean “flower” is actually a multitude of tiny flowers placed together in a “head” (”capitula”) surrounded by whorls of petal-like bracts….Some asteraceans, like the sunflower and lettuce, have great economic importance as crops. (kingsnake)
Identification: The most common characteristic of all these plants is an inflorescence or flower head; a densely packed cluster of many small, individual flowers, usually called florets (meaning “small flowers”). (wikipedia)
Examples: daisy, dandelions, lettuce
Bignoniaceae – the trumpet creeper family
Description: The Bignoniaceae, or trumpet creeper family, is a family of flowering plants, comprising mainly of trees, shrubs, lianas, and a few herbaceous plants. The family is widespread in both Old World and New World, distributed mostly in the tropics and subtropics, but with a number of temperate species as well, mainly in North America and eastern Asia. The family includes about 650 species in 110 genera. (wikipedia)
Identification: Opposite, simple leaves; milky juice; irregular, crown-like flowers. Opposite, compound leaves; with tendrils, this is a positive ID
Example: jacaranda
Cecropiaceae – the Cecropia family [Now placed with the Urticaceae, or nettle family. (wikipedia)]
Description: Cecropia is a genus of about 25 species of trees in the nettle family Cecropiaceae. They are native to tropical South and Central America, where they form one of the most recognisable components of the rainforest, easily identified by their large, circular palmately lobed leaves about 30-40 cm diameter, deeply divided into 7-11 lobes. The genus is named after King Cecrops I, first King of Athens. (wikipedia)
Identification: A distinctive conical stipule covers the apical bud. Milky latex.
Examples: Cecropia
Description: Clethraceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Ericales, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Asia and the Americas, with one species also on Madeira. The family comprises two genera, Clethra and Purdiaea. (wikipedia)
Identification: Alternate, simple leaves. Leaves whitish below from star-shaped hairs. Flowers small and white, in long narrow spike-like racemes. 10 stamens. (Gentry)
Examples: nance macho, Clethra lanata
Description: The Clusiaceae (also Guttiferae or Hypericaceae) is a family of plants including about 50 genera and 1200 species of trees and shrubs. (wikipedia)
Identification: Opposite leaves, entire margins; if white latex is present, the apical bud arises from the hollowed-out base of a pair of petioles.
Examples: Clusia, mangosteen
Costaceae – the Costus family
Description: Costaceae or the Costus Family is a family of pantropical monocots. They belong to the order Zingiberales, which contains other horticulturally and economically important plants such as the banana (Musaceae), bird-of-paradise (Strelitziaceae), and edible ginger (Zingiberaceae). The seven genera contain about 100 species.
The fused infertile stamen form a large petalloid labellum that often functions to attract pollinators. The flowers are generally solitary or aggregated in inflorescences. Inflorescences are arranged in a terminal head or spike, except for Monocostus. (wikipedia)
Identification: The simple leaves are entire and spirally arranged, with those toward base of the stem usually bladeless. Leaf bases have a closed sheath with a ligule, or projection at the top of the sheath. Fruit is a berry or capsule. The rhizome is fleshy with tuberous roots.
Examples: Costus (spiral ginger, crepe ginger)
Description: The family Cyperaceae, or the sedge family, is a taxon of monocot flowering plants that superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 4,000 species described in about 70 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group occurring in tropical Asia and tropical South America. While sedges may be found growing in all kinds of situations, they tend to be associated with wet places and poor soils. (wikipedia)
The term sedge may sometimes refer to any member of the sedge family, but it often refers only to the genus Carex.[1]
Identification: grass-like plant with scales under each of the small flowers
Examples: White-topped sedge (Rhynchospora colorata)
Description: Dilleniaceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants…known to gardeners for the genus Hibbertia, which contains many commercially valuable garden species. The family consists of about a dozen genera, of a few hundred species, found in the tropics and sub-tropics plus Australia. The species are mostly woody plants, but range from herbaceous plants up to large trees (wikipedia).
Identification: Leaves often rough and sandpapery with straight, parallel, close-together secondary veins, connected by subperpendicular, strongly parallel tertiary veinlets (Gentry).
Examples: sandpaper plant, Dillenia sp.
Fabaceae – the legume family
Description: The legumes form a large and varied family of plants with about 17,000 species described to date. They can be herbs, shrubs, lianas, or trees, and are characterized mainly by the kind of fruit they produce. When mature, this is usually a dry, elongated capsule containing from one to many seeds.
The family is divided into three subfamilies, mainly distinguished among themselves by the structure of their flowers.
Subfamily Caesalpinioideae
The flowers are bilaterally symmetrical, and in such way can be divided into halves only along one plane.
Subfamily Mimosoideae
The flowers are radially symmetrical, like a star, in such a way that they can be dissected along any vertical plane passing through their centers to form two identical halves. Some species in this group are peculiar for being sensitive to mechanical disturbance. When touched, their leaves will immediately close along the central stem.
Subfamily Papilionoideae
In this subfamily the petals are fused together. The adaxial (superior-posterior) exterior of the lateral petals (wings) forms with the two anterior-inferior petals (keel) a strongly zygomorphic corolla. The result is that many of this flowers look remarkably like orchids. This is the group that contains those species with the greatest economic importance to man: the beans and peas so widely cultivated around the World. (kingsnake)
Identification: Alternate, compound leaves. Produce pods.
Examples: mimosa, senna
Description: Iridaceae is a family of plants in Order Asparagales, taking its name from the Irises. Members of this family are perennial plants, with a bulb, corm or rhizome. The plants grow erect, and have leaves that are generally grass-like, with a sharp central fold. Some examples of members of this family are the Blue Flag and Yellow Flag. (wikipedia)
Identification: Narrow more or less linear leaves, no difference between upper and lower surfaces. Flowers have inferior ovaries and have only three stamens. (Gentry)
Examples: iris, freesia, gladiolus, crocus
Description: The Liliaceae, or the Lily Family, is a family of monocotyledons in the order Liliales. Plants in this family have linear leaves, mostly with parallel veins, and flower arranged in threes. Many plants in the Liliaceae are important ornamental plants, widely grown for their attractive flowers. Many plants in the family are poisonous if eaten. (wikipedia)
Identification: Long filament-like stamens holding pollen conspicuously on the tips, superior ovaries.
Examples: Lily, narcissus or daffodil, trillium
Description: The Malpighiaceae, a family of flowering plants in the order Malpighiales, comprises approximately 75 genera and 1300 species of the tropics and subtropics. (wikipedia) This pantropical family is represented in the West Indies by plants like those of the Neotropical genus Stygmaphyllon. These are woody lianas with brightly colored flowers and winged fruits. Their many stems entwine around one another, forming strong, rope-like structures. (kingsnake)
Identification: Trees have intrapetiolar stipules; lianas have glands at the base of the leaf petiole. Both plants have T-shaped Malpighian hairs.
Examples: nance, Stigmaphyllon vine
Marantaceae – the prayer plant family
Description: The Marantaceae or arrowroot family is a family of flowering plants known for its large starchy rhizomes. It is sometimes called the prayer-plant family. The most well known species in the family is arrowroot (Maranta arundinacea), a plant of the Caribbean, grown for its easily digestible starch in parts of the Caribbean, Australasia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Several species of genus Calathea are grown as houseplants for their large ornamental leaves, variegated in shades of green, white and pink. (wikipedia)
Identification: Large-leaved monocots, well-developed midveins. Numerous very fine closely parallel lateral veins, curving from midrib to margin, keep the leaves from shredding easily, as distinct from banana leaves.
Examples: bijao (Calathea)
Melastomataceae – the “black mouth” family
Description: The Melastomataceae are herbs, shrubs, or trees comprising about 200 genera and 4,000 species that are further characterized by having the major leaf veins usually 3-9 palmate and running in a parallel fashion from the base of the blade to near the leaf tip. (wikipedia) This family includes the Neotropical genera Miconia and Tetrazygia. Their small flowers are produced in panicles growing from the sides of the branches or terminally, at their apexes. Some species of Miconia have made unpleasant news after they invaded areas where they are not native, like the Hawaiian islands. (kingsnake)
Identification: Opposite, simple leaves with alternating pairs at right angles. 1-4 pairs of longitudinal veins.
Examples: canillo (Miconia)
Musaceae – the banana family
Description: Musaceae is a botanical name for a family of flowering plants. The plants have a large herbaceous growth habit with leaves with overlapping basal sheaths that form a pseudostem making some members appear to be woody trees…..All of the genera and species are native to the Old World. The largest and most economically important genus in the family is Musa, famous for the banana and plantain. The genus Musa was formally established in the first edition of Linnaeus’ Species Plantarum in 1753 — the publication that marks the start of the present formal botanical nomenclature. At the time he wrote the Species Plantarum, Linnaeus had first hand knowledge of only one type of banana, which he personally had the opportunity of seeing growing under glass in the garden of Mr. George Clifford near Haarlem in the Netherlands. (wikipedia)
Identification: Large oblong leaf blades with well-developed midvein. Very fine parallel veinlets run perpendicularly from midvein to margin.
Examples: guineo (banana), platano (plantain)
Description: The Myrtaceae or Myrtle family are a family of dicotyledon plants. All species are woody, with essential oils, and flower parts in multiples of four or five. The family Myrtaceae has at least 3000 species distributed in 130-150 genera. They have a wide distribution in tropical and warm-temperate regions of the world, and are typically common in many of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. (wikipedia)
Identification: Simple, opposite leaves. Leaves have punctations. Small flowers with many stamens.
Examples: Eugenia (including acerola and Surinam cherry), guava, and eucalyptus.
Description: The largest family of flowering plants. The Royal Botanical Gardens of Kew list 880 genera and nearly 22,000 accepted species, but the exact number is unknown (perhaps as many as 25,000). A majority of orchids are perennial epiphytes, which grow anchored to trees or shrubs in the tropics and subtropics. Other species arelithophytes, growing on rocks or very rocky soil, or are terrestrial. Nearly all temperate orchids are terrestrial. (wikipedia)
Identification: Most orchids have a pseudobulb, a solid swollen bulblike stem section from which the leaves arise. They have highly elaborate flowers with specialized labellum lip, (the enlarged lower petal); column (fleshy central structure produced by fusion of stamen and pistil), and pollinia (a sticky package of pollen). (Gentry)
Examples: Cattleya, Epidendrum, Dracula
Description: Proteaceae are mainly a southern hemisphere family, with its main centres of diversity in Australia and South Africa. It also occurs in Central Africa, South and Central America, India, eastern and south-eastern Asia, and Oceania. It is a fairly large family, with around 80 genera but fewer than 2000 species (wikipedia).
Identification: Proteaceae are generally trees or shrubs, evergreen, with leaves that vary greatly in size, shape and margin. In many genera, the most obvious feature is the large and often very showy inflorescence, consisting of many small flowers densely packed into a compact head or spike (wikipedia). Coriaceous (leathery) leaves. Most have long petioles, which are more or less thickened at base
(Gentry).
Examples: macadamia relative, Roupala montana
Rubiaceae – the coffee family
Description: Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, variously called the madder, bedstraw, or coffee family. Other common plants included here are gardenia, cinchona, sweet woodruff, partridgeberry, gambier, ixora, and noni. As now circumscribed, there are about 600 genera and more than 10,000 species in the Rubiaceae. (wikipedia). The best-known rubiaceans are certain Old World bushes from which humans have elaborated the most popular drink on Earth, after water: coffee. This is an infusion of the grounded seeds of Coffea arabiga and a few related species. Most members of the family produce fruits in the form of berries, often brightly colored. (kingsnake)
Identification: Entire, opposite leaves; interpetiolar stipules.
Examples: coffee, ixora, noni
Verbeneaceae – the Verbena family
Description: The Verbenaceae or Verbena family is a family of mainly tropical plants notable for heads, spikes, or clusters of small flowers. The family includes about 90 genera and nearly 2,000 species of trees, shrubs and herbs. (wikipedia) The group includes several West Indian representatives of the genus Lantana. These relatives of oregano (with the same odor in their leaves) are common mainly in xeric forests and in clearings of otherwise mesic areas. (kingsnake)
Identification: Opposite or whorled leaves, usually simple. Leaves aromatic, stems sharply tetragonal.
Examples: Lantana, oregano
Description: Zingiberaceae, or the Ginger family, is a family of flowering plants consisting of aromatic perennial herbs with creeping horizontal or tuberous rhizomes, comprising ca. 52 genera and more than 1300 species, distributed throughout tropical Africa, Asia and the Americas. (wikipedia)
Identification: Small to large herbaceous plants with distichous leaves (alternate leaves arranged in two opposite vertical rows, as in grasses) with sheaths that overlap to form a pseudostem. Flowers typically have two of their sterile stamens fused to form a petaloid lip, and have only one fertile stamen. The ovary is inferior, the stigma is funnel-shaped. (wikipedia)
Examples: Ginger, turmeric, resurrection plant.
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