Clare O’Reillyclare@ptyxis.com

Sue Townsend Biodiversity Learning Manager

sue.t@field-studies-council.org

The Top British Plant Families

Facts………

About 60-70% of flowering plants in Britain are in about 15 families. (there are over 140 families in the British flora 600+ worldwide!!)

So learning families can be short cut to using any key

There are some quick gains to learn on similarities & differences in some common plant families

Sue’s top 12

12 easy to spot families which will cover most of what you need to

raise confidence and get a bit of botanical know-how.

Excludes tree families ( as they are not my favourites – and family

ID isn’t always the quickest route to trees!)

Botanical Knowledge

• There is a large diagram of a typical flower on your desk

• There are some labels for it – have a go!

• There are also some labels and annotations for a whole plant

Basic Botany to get you started..

Regular or irregular flower? Carpels free or fused?Type of ovary? Is it a grass?!!

Regular or irregular flowers?

REGULAR FLOWER

With

RADIAL SYMETRY

IRREGULAR FLOWER

With

SYMETRY in one plane only

ACTINOMORPHIC ZYGOMORPHIC

You have two plants in front of you

Are they both regular?

Carpels Free or FusedThere are two plants in front of you...

Remember 1 carpel = stigma, style plus ovary

Tear them gently apart – find their carpels – are they fused?

Are your ovaries inferior or superior?

Ovaries Superior or Inferior?There are two plants in front of you...

Find the stigma and trace them back to find the ovary – is it above

where the petals join?

Sue’s top 121. Buttercup

2. Campion

3. Cabbage

4. Rose

5. Pea

6. Carrot

7. Deadnettle

8. Figwort

9. Campion

10. Daisy

11. Lily

12.Grass

1. Ranunculaceae (Buttercup family)

•Many free petals & sepals (often tepals) stamens & carpels

•Superior ovary

•Fr achenes = single seeded dry indehiscent (unsplitting) fruit; or

•Fr follicles = dry dehiscent with many seeds

2. Caryophyllaceae (Campion family)

•Petals, sepals usually 5 (sometimes absent)

•Stamens 5-10

•Superior ovary

•Opposite lvs

•Fr capsule

3. Brassicaceae (Cabbage family)

•4 petals & sepals in ‘cross’ hence ‘crucifer’

•Stamens 4-6

•Superior ovary

•Alternate lvs

•Fr usually of 2 fused carpels

4. Rosaceae (Rose family)

•Usually 5 free petals and sepals

•Stamens 5 to many

•Stipules usually present

•Epicalyx often present

•Trees, shrubs, herbs

5. Fabaceae (Pea family)

•Distinctive Irregular flower

•Leaves often trifoliate – sometimes pinnate.

•Varies in size eg Laburnum or vetch.

ptyxis ecologyclare@ptyxis.com

6. The Apiaceae (used to be called the umbelliferae)Very distinctive family with white or cream flowers

held up on ‘umberellas’

7. Lamiaceae (Dead-nettle family)

•Square stem

•Opposite lvs

•Irregular flower

•Superior ovary forming 4 nutlets

•Often aromatic

8. Scrophulariaceae (Figwort family)

•Square stem

•Opposite lvs or alternate lvs or both

•Irregular flower

•2-part superior ovary forming capsule

9. Asteraceae (Daisy family)

•Composite flower

Made up of small florets held on a receptacle.

•Opposite lvs or alternate lvs or both

•Irregular flower

•2-part superior ovary forming capsule

10. Liliaceae (Lily family)

• Usually parallel leaf veins

• Regular flower

• Flower parts in 3s or 6s, tepals only

• Superior ovary (mostly)

• Usually parallel leaf veins

• Irregular flower

• Flower parts in 2 whorls – outer sepals and inner petals – one petal forming a distinct lip

• Inferior ovary

11. Orchidaceae (Orchid family)

• Parallel leaf veins

• Flower with glumes and lemmas

• Distinctive features are ligules the way the stem is sheathed by the leaf and whether the leaf is folded or rolled when young.

12. Poaceae (Grass family)

Plants as indicator species

• Plants tell us something about their environment

eg

• Heather Acid soil

• Creeping Buttercup Wet Ground

• Tall Oat Grass Neglected

• Yellowort Calcareous

To find out more – you can use a scoring system developed by a German botany professor – the Ellenburg Values.

Final Thoughts•Learning the families enables you to short-

cut in the keys

•There are lots you can find out by using plants as indicator species

•They provide habitat/food/egg laying sites for literally hundreds of species

•A little knowledge give some confidence in where to find out more

•They are the base of our foodchains

Further Information

www.bsbi.org.uk www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/trees/index.htm

Website with descriptions of the ecology of many UK species

http://www.ecoflora.co.uk/

http://www.ceh.ac.uk/products/publications/untitled.html

Direct links for free download of Ellenburg values

FSC guides are good...........

There are a series of fold-out charts for botany:

• Describing flowers• Fruits and seed dispersal• Tree name trail• Commoner water plants• Guide to grassland plants 1• Guide to grassland plants 2 (chalk and limestone)• Key to common ferns• Guide to orchids• Grasses• Moorland Plants• Woodland plants• Saltmarsh plants of Britain• Playing field plants• Plants common on sand dunes

• Pages from FSC website

• Individuals & Families 2013 Natural History

• http://www.field-studies-council.org/individuals-and-families/natural-history/flowers-and-other-plants.aspx

.

FlowersGrasses and grass like plantsTreesFernsWater plantsMosses and liverwortsFungiLichen