Caprifoliaceae (cap-ree-foh-lee-AY-see-ee)
Iconic Features
- Mostly shrubs and vines
- Flowers often bell-shaped or tubular
- Inferior ovary
- Fleshy fruit
Description (Jepson)
- Eudicotyledons (eudicots) – a major lineage of flowering plants including most plants traditionally described as dicots and generally characterized by
- 2 seed leaves (dicotyledon)
- Netted (reticulate) leaf venation
- Flower parts in fours and fives
- Pollen grains with 3 pores (tricolpate)
- Vascular bundles in stem arranged in a ring
- Taproot system
- Shrub to small tree or vine; evergreen or deciduous
- Stem core is pithy (like styrofoam)
- Leaves
- Simple (not divided into leaflets) or compound (divided into leaflets)
- Opposite (2 leaves at each junction with stem)
- Lack stipules (pair of leaf-like structures at the base of the leaf stalk)
- Flowers
- Inflorescence (flower arrangement) in many forms, with flowers often in pairs
- Bisexual flowers often bell-shaped or tubular
- Flower parts in fives: usually 5 small fused sepals (protective cover for bud), 5 fused petals, and 5 stamen (male flower parts), attached to the petals
- Ovary inferior (below the attachment of other flower parts)
- Fruit is a berry (a usually multi-seeded fruit with a fleshy ovary wall) or a drupe (a fleshy fruit with usually 1 seed in a hard inner shell — a stone fruit)
Notes
- Approximately 220 species worldwide
- Includes snowberries and honeysuckles
- Stem core is pithy (like styrofoam)
- Scientific name from the included genus Caprifolium (now Lonicera), from the Latin caper, “goat,” and folium, “leaf”
- The common name for honeysuckle in German, French, and Italian also means “goat leaf,” suggesting that honeysuckles may be a favorite food of goats
- Several traditional members of this family, including elderberries (Sambucus), viburnums, and twinflower (Linnaea), have been moved to other families
- Represented by 4 species at Edgewood
General References
Calflora Database. 2014. Berkeley, California.
Calscape. 2018. California Native Plant Society.
Charters, M.L. 2015. California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations.
Charters, M.L. 2017. Southern California Wildflowers: Guide to the Pronunciation of Specific, Generic and Family Names.
Corelli, T. 2004. Flowering Plants of Edgewood Natural Preserve (2nd. ed.). Monocot Press, Half Moon Bay, California.
Elpel, T.J. 2013. Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification. HOPS Press, Pony, Montana.
Flora of North America. efloras.org.
Harris, J.G., and M.W. Harris. 2013. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Spring Lake Publishing, Spring Lake, Utah.
Keator, G. 2009. California Plant Families. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California.
Native American Ethnobotany DB.
Regents of the University of California. Jepson eFlora. Jepson Herbarium. University of California, Berkeley.
Browse Some Edgewood Plants in this Family
