{"id":245,"date":"2014-10-27T02:15:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-27T02:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/orbisec.com\/?page_id=245"},"modified":"2014-10-27T02:15:05","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T02:15:05","slug":"legume-flower-morphology-and-terminology","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/orbisec.com\/index.php\/legume-flower-morphology-and-terminology\/","title":{"rendered":"Legume Flower Morphology and Terminology"},"content":{"rendered":"

YOUR DAILY DOSE OF BOTANY \u2013 MARCH 2014<\/strong><\/h1>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Legume Flower Morphology and Terminology<\/strong><\/h2>\n

by Scott Namestnik, snamestnik@orbisec.com<\/a><\/h2>\n

One of the largest and economically most important plant families in the world is the Legume Family (Fabaceae).\u00a0 Members of this family are found on every continent except Antarctica, so almost no matter where you go you have the opportunity to see (and probably eat) plants from this family.\u00a0 The Fabaceae is sometimes split into three separate families, or the three groups are treated as subfamilies of the larger family.\u00a0 The three groups are known as the Mimosoideae, the Caesalpinioideae, and the Papilionoideae (or Faboideae).\u00a0 All of these have bisexual flowers with five sepals and five petals, but there are differences in floral morphology between the groups.\u00a0 Here, we will look in detail at the flowers of the largest of the three subfamilies, the Papilionoideae.<\/p>\n

\"Cream<\/a>
Cream Wild Indigo (Baptisia bracteata var. leucophaea)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The literal translation of Papilionoideae is \u201cbutterfly subfamily.\u201d\u00a0 The reason for using this name to describe this group of plants becomes more obvious when you look closely at the flowers of plants in this subfamily, as from the correct angle they do look something like butterflies.\u00a0 The flowers are zygomorphic (remember what that means from the October 2012 issue of The Plant Press<\/em><\/a>?).\u00a0 The five sepals<\/strong> are fused together, and the five petals<\/strong> are unequal in size.\u00a0 The uppermost petal is the largest of the five and is referred to as the standard<\/strong>, or the banner<\/strong>.\u00a0 This petal can often look like it consists of two fused petals because of its size and the fact that it is often lobed.\u00a0 The petals adjacent to the standard on either side of it are called the wings<\/strong>.\u00a0 The wings are identical to each other, and have a claw<\/strong>, which is the narrowed base of the petal.\u00a0 The lowermost two petals are fused at their tips, forming the boat-shaped structure called the keel<\/strong>.\u00a0 All of these often colorful floral parts serve the purpose of attracting pollinators; in fact, the wings serve as a landing platform for a potential pollinator.\u00a0 The sexual parts of the flower are contained within the keel.\u00a0 The ten stamens<\/strong> (male reproductive parts) are arranged in various ways but often have fused filaments<\/strong> (the stalks of the stamens).\u00a0 The pistil<\/strong> consists of an elongated ovary<\/strong> topped by a curved style<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Cream<\/a>
Cream Wild Indigo (Baptisia bracteata var. leucophaea). Note the butterfly-like appearance of the flower.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although you may be thinking that terms such as standard, wings, and keel are made up by botanists just to make the language more confusing, that isn\u2019t the case at all.\u00a0 It is very important to understand the meanings of these terms when running a plant through an identification key\u2026 and as we all know, the best way to correctly determine the identity of an unknown plant is to use a dichotomous key of the flora to figure it out!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you have a question about plant terminology or morphology that you would like answered in a future edition of this column, send me an email at snamestnik@orbisec.com<\/a>. \u00a0I may not be able to address all requests given the space allotted for this column, but I will answer those that I can.<\/p>\n