35 - Fumariaceae

Summary

Annual or perennial, usually glabrous herbs. Stems 5-angled, usually brittle, sometimes climbing; juice watery. Leaves usually alternate, very rarely opposite, ternately or pinnately divided, triangular to ovate in outline, rarely with leaflets decreasing in size towards the base, without stipules. Flowers usually strongly zygomorphic, sometimes more regular, bisexual, hypogynous. Sepals 2, small, petaloid, usually somewhat peltate and lateral, not covering the petals in bud, more or less caducous. Petals 4, in two dissimilar pairs; outer coherent at apex in bud, later free, fused to the androecium and the inner petals at the base, winged towards the apex, sometimes with a median crest, one or both spurred or saccate; inner narrower, coherent at apex, jointed and flexible at the middle, enclosing the androecium and gynoecium, with a median wing on the distal part and two lateral wings abaxially. Stamens 2, tripartite, the central branch bearing a two-celled anther, the lateral branches each bearing a one-celled anther, nectariferous at base; anthers rounded-elliptical, closely adhering to the stigma. Stigma usually flattened. Pollen grains spherical, pantoporate or colpate. Fruit a capsule or achene. Seeds with a small embryo and copious endosperm.

The Fumariaceae are often united with the Papaveraceae, but the markedly zygomorphic flowers of the majority of the species, which make it an easily recognisable group, suggest that they are most usefully treated as a distinct family. There are 17 genera and between 360 and 420 species, arranged in two subfamilies, one of which is not represented in this flora. Native of the north temperate zone and South and East Africa, but introduced as garden plants and weeds in many other parts of the world. The family is here arranged according to the system of M. Lidén (1986).