Families

Capparaceae

This medium sized family comprised of 40-50 genera and about 700 species.  It contains herbs, trees and shrubs and some lianas.  The leaves are alternate, rarely opposite, and simple or palmate or digitate.  They have 2-7 leaflets.  The flowers are bisexual or rarely unisexual; fruits are capsules; and seeds are without endosperm.

Caprifoliaceae

The honeysuckle family of the teasel order (Dipsacales), well known for its many ornamental shrubs and vines, primarily composed of north temperate species but including some tropical mountain plants. The family has 18 genera and about 450 species, mostly woody shrubs and vines.  The leaves are usually opposite, simple and without stipules.  The flowers are bisexual and either regular or irregular.  The fruit is most often a berry and the seeds typically have a small straight embryo with copious endosperm.

Casuarinaceae

The Casuarinaceae is a distinctive family of trees and shrubs adapted to dry habitats comprising about 65 species in one genus, Casuarina.  The leaves are very peculiar in structure, appearing as whorls of reduces, many-toothed sheaths surrounding the articulations of the jointed stream.  The flowers too, are highly reduced, and usually unisexual, with the male and female flowers bourne on different plants. The fruits are enclosed in hard bracteoles which later open to release them, with the result that mature inflorescences resemble pine cones.  The seeds have a straight embryo and no endosperm.

Celastraceae

Celastraceae is the spindle tree family, in the order Celastrales, comprising about 55 genera and 850 species of woody vines, shrubs, and trees, native in tropical and temperate zones. Leaves are frequently leathery and flowers are small, with four to five sepals and petals; alternating between the petals, stamens rise from a usually conspicuous nectar disk.  The seeds possess a large, straight embryo surrounded by fleshy endosperm and often covered by a brightly coloured aril which aids in dispersal by birds.

Clusiaceae (Guttiferae)

The garcinia family, in the tea order (Theales), comprising about 40 genera and about 1000 species of tropical trees and shrubs. Several are important for their fruits, resins, or timbers.  Members of the Clusiaceae family usually have broad-ended, oblong, leathery leaves with a strong, central vein from which branch many delicate, horizontal veins. The plants have resinous, sticky sap, flowers with numerous stamens often united in bundles, and separate petals and sepals. Male and female organs often occur in separate flowers.

Cochlospermaceae

This small family of tropical trees and shrubs contains 2 genera and about 38 species.  The leaves are alternate, palmately lobed and with stipules.  The flowers are regular or slightly irregular, bisexual, often showy and bourne in racemes or panicles.  The fruit is a three to five valved capsule, containing seeds which may be hairy or not, and coiled or straight in shape.  The seeds contain oily endosperm.

Combretaceae

The Combretaceae is a family of tropical trees, shrubs and lianas which includes 20 genera and about 475 species.  The leaves are entire, alternate or opposite and without stipules.  The flowers are small, regular and bisexual rarely unisexual) often clustered in globular or elongated heads , and nectar may be produced in abundance.   Most of the species have wingless fruits which are either fleshy and animal-dispersed or have spongy tissue and are water-dispersed.  The seed has no endosperm, and the cotyledons are very variable in form.

Coniferae

Coniferae is a small family of trees and shrubs.  The leaves are usually alternate or fascicled, rarely opposite, usually rigid or linear, rarely broad.  The flowers are unisexual or bisexual.  Seeds are often winged and have a straight embryo.

Connaraceae

This Dictotyledonous family of tropical trees or twining shrubs contains 16 genera and about 350 species.  Some species of this family are economically important.  The leaves are alternate and without stipules, and are pinnate or trifoliolate, a few species being unifoliolate.  The flowers which are produced in panicles are generally bisexual or either regular or slightly irregular.  The fruit is generally a follicle containing a single seed which may or may not contain endosperm.  The seed often have an outer appendage (aril).

Convolvulaceae

The Convolvulaceae is a family of herbaceous and woody, often climbing plants, composed of about 1800 species in 50 genera.  The leaves are alternate, simple, rarely with stipules.  The flowers are bisexual, regular, often with an involucre of bracts.  The fruit is a capsule, often dehiscent.  The seeds are sometimes hairy, with little endosperm and a curved embryo often with folded cotyledons. 

Cornaceae

The Cornaceae is a small family of trees and shrubs and rarely herbs.  It contains about 13 genera and over 100 species.  The leaves are opposite or occasionally alternate, simple and sometimes evergreen.  The flowers are small, regular, bisexual or unisexual with both sexes on separate plants. The fruit is a drupe or berry with 1-4 locules and one or two stones.

Cycadaceae

The Cycadaceae are woody, unbranched or sparsely branched, palm-like, dioecious, seed-bearing trees or shrubs with thick, pithy stems. The leaves are alternate, spirally arranged in a cluster at the summit of the stem, frond-like, pinnately compound, usually stiff, often with sharply pointed leaflets. The ovules and seeds (2-8) are born naked on the petioles of reduced leaves that are loosely clustered at the stem apex of female plants.  Male plants produce male or microsporangiate cones that bear many scales, each with an abundance of microsporangia scattered over the lower surface.  Seeds are typically large.