General description:- Predominantly woody tropical family represented in Europe, by more or less herbaceous plants with leaf-like stipules.
Leaves:- Nearly always opposite, simple, entire; stipules separate, joined margin to margin (connate) or divided, sometimes leaf-like and then forming whorls of 4-12 apparent leaves.
Flower:- Radially symmetrical (actinomorphic), usually hermaphrodite. Inflorescence a compact panicle of ± cylindrical form (thyrsoid), or with the lower branches longer than the upper so that all end up at the same level (corymbose), sometimes condensed to a spike or head, or reduced. Sepals usually free, sometimes reduced or absent. Petals united (sympetalous); corolla with slender tube and abruptly widening limb (hypocrateriform), funnel-shaped (infundibuliform), cup-shaped or rotate. Stamens united with the petals (epipetalous), alternating with the lobes of the corolla. Ovary inferior, usually with 2 compartments (2-locular) and with a disc; loculi with 1-numerous ovules. Style simple or divided at the tip in two (usually equal) parts by a median cleft (2-fid).
Fruit:- Dry, splitting away at maturity as a perfect fruit (mericarp), or fleshy. Seeds, the nutritive tissue is absorbed more slowly into the developing embryo so that part of it remains at least until germination (endospermic).
ASPERULA
General description:- Dwarf shrubs, perennial herbs or annuals.
Stems:- More or less distinctly 4-angled and not retrorsely aculeolate.
Leaves:- In whorls of 4-8(-11) or in pairs.
Flowers:- Inflorescence of panicles or capitula; ultimate branches with bracts and often bracteoles. Flowers hermaphrodite, (3-)4(-5)-merous. Calyx absent or consisting of short teeth. Corolla usually hypocrateriform to infundibuliform, rarely rotate. Stigmas capitate or clavate. Ovary and fruit oblong to globose, never with hooked hairs.
Fruit:- Dry.
Key features:-
1) Calyx absent.
2) Flowers in cymes or panicles.
3) Leaves in whorls of more than 4.
4) Pedicels with bracteoles; ovary and fruit oblong, truncate at apex.
5) Flowers not enclosed in membranous bracts; annual or perennial.
9) Ultimate inflorescence branches with bracts and often bracteoles.
Sect. ASPERULA
General description:- Annuals.
Leaves:- Mostly in whorls of 6-8, 1-veined, rounded at the apex.
Flowers:- Partial inflorescences capitate, enveloped by leaf-like, long-ciliate bracts. Corolla 4-merous, hypocrateriform, bluish-violet (rarely whitish), papillose-puberulent outside. Ovary and fruit more or less globose, smooth, glabrous.
Sect. CYNANCHICAE
General description:- Dwarf shrubs or perennial herbs with taproot, usually without rhizomes or stolons, caespitose.
Leaves:- In whorls of up to 4, the cauline linear-lanceolate, 1-veined, with a hyaline point or awn.
Flowers:- Inflorescence pyramidal, corymbiform, or spicate to capitate; flowers with short pedicels or sessile, subtended by bracts and bracteoles. Corolla 4-merous, hypocrateriform to infundibuliform, purplish, pink, greenish, yellowish or sometimes whitish, externally hairy, papillose or smooth; anthers and stigma included. Ovary and fruit ovoid, more or less papillose or tuberculate, rarely hairy, never entirely smooth.
Most species grow on dry, open rocky ground or in dry grassland; the majority are calcicole.
Sect. HEXAPHYLLA
General description:- Perennial herbs, with or without subterranean stolons.
Leaves:- In whorls of 6(7); cauline broadly lanceolate to linear, 1-veined, without a distinct hyaline apex.
Flowers:- Inflorescence pyramidal to corymbiform; partial inflorescences more or less capitate and involucrate; flowers with short pedicels or subsessile. Corolla 4-merous, hypocrateriform to infundibuliform, purplish or lilac to pink and whitish, glabrous and smooth or hairy outside; anthers and stigma often exserted. Ovary and fruit ovoid, hairy or glabrous, somewhat granulate.
Sect. THLIPHTHISA
General description:- Dwarf shrubs or perennial herbs, with woody taproot, without rhizomes or stolons.
Leaves:- In whorls of 6-8(-11), elliptical to linear, 1-veined, obtuse to acuminate at apex.
Flowers:- Inflorescence pyramidal to ovoid, leafy more or less throughout; partial inflorescences with bracts and bracteoles. Corolla 4-merous, infundibuliform to rotate, purplish, reddish, brownish, greenish, yellowish or whitish, externally smooth and glabrous or hairy. Ovary and fruit oblong, truncate at apex, glabrous and more or less granulate, rarely hairy.
CRUCIANELLA
General description:- Woody or herbaceous perennials or annuals.
Leaves:- In whorls of 4-8. Inflorescence a spike.
Flowers:- Hermaphrodite, usually solitary, sessile or shortly pedicellate in the axil of a bract and subtended by two bracteoles at the base. Calyx reduced or absent. Corolla coloured, infundibuliform; tube narrow, 3-6 times as long as the 4-5 lobes; lobes usually with incurved awn at apex. Style bifid; branches unequal; stigmas capitate.
Fruit:- Dry, glabrous, smooth to tuberculate; mericarps usually 2, narrowly ovoid, 1-seeded.
All species grow in dry, open habitats.
1) Leaves and leaf-like stipules in whorls of 4 or more.
2) Corolla-tube longer than the lobes.
3) Flowers in dense spikes, usually with only 1 sessile flower in the axil of each bract.
GALLIUM
General description:- Dwarf shrubs, perennial herbs or annuals.
Stems:- More or less distinctly 4-angled and sometimes circular in cross section (terete), sometimes with small prickles or sharp points turned downward (retrorsely aculeolate); ultimate branches of inflorescence often without bracts, always without bracteoles; stems (pedicels) often longer than ovary or fruit.
Leaves:- In whorls of 4-8(-11) or in pairs.
Flowers:- Usually hermaphrodite, (3-)4-petalled (merous); corolla rarely funnel-shaped (infundibuliform), usually cup-shaped or rotate. Calyx absent or consisting of short teeth. Ovary ovoid, sometimes with hooked hairs; Inflorescence of panicles or capitula. Stigmas pin-headed (capitate) or club-shaped, i.e. thickened towards the apex (clavate).
Fruit:- Dry, rarely somewhat fleshy; ovoid.
Key features:-
1) Pedicels without bracteoles.
2) Ovary and fruit ovoid.
3) Ultimate inflorescence-branches without bracts or bracteoles.
4) Corolla 4-lobed.
5) Fruit dry.
6) Central flower of cymes hermaphrodite; lateral flowers male (rarely absent).
7) Leaves in whorls of more than 4.
Sect. APARINOIDES
General description:- Perennial herbs with slender creeping rhizomes.
Stems:- 4-angled, usually more or less retrorsely aculeolate, never with patent hairs.
Leaves:- Usually in whorls of 4-6, 1-veined, more or less rounded or obtuse, without a hyaline point, usually blackish when dry.
Flowers:- Inflorescence cylindrical to broadly pyramidal; partial inflorescences cymose, 1- to many-flowered, the ultimate branches usually ebracteate. Corolla 3- to 4-merous, shallowly infundibuliform, white, pink or greenish; lobes acute, not appendiculate.
Fruit:- Globose, dry, smooth to verrucose or tuberculate, never with hooked setae or hairs.
Sect. JUBOGALIUM
General description:- Perennial herbs, often woody at the base, often caespitose, or annuals.
Leaves:- 5-8(-10) in a whorl, 1-veined, not awned.
Flowers:- Inflorescence bracteate throughout; upper branches and pedicels slender, almost capillary, usually reddish. Corolla rotate, purple to greenish-yellow. Ovary hairy except for the commissural groove which is sometimes glabrous and covered with yellowish glandular tissue.
Fruit:- Dry, smooth, hairy.
Sect. KOLGYDA
General description:- Annuals.
Stems:- 4-angled, retrorsely aculeolate, otherwise glabrous or hairy.
Leaves:- In whorls of 4-11, 1-veined, acute or sometimes barbed or feathered (awned).
Flowers:- Inflorescence pyramidal or oblong, usually strongly bracteate; cymes few-flowered or reduced to solitary axillary flowers. Flowers sometimes male (andromonoecious). Corolla usually rotate. Ovary without glandular surface along which adjoining carpels are appressed (commissure).
Fruit:- Dry, with patent, hooked bristles (setae), or more or less hispid or glabrous and papillose or smooth.
Sect. LEIOGALIUM
General description:- Perennial herbs with woody stock, without or with robust stolons, and rather stout stem-bases.
Stems:- 4-angled or terete, glabrous or hairy, but never with the small prickles or sharp points turned downward (retrorsely aculeolate).
Leaves:- In whorls of up to 10, 1-veined, normally with antrorsely directed papilliform teeth along the margin, margins turned downwards and inwards.and with a thin and transparent (hyaline) short, sharp, but not stiff point (apiculum).
Flowers:- Inflorescence many-flowered, oblong, ovoid or flat-topped (corymbiform), the ultimate branches mostly without bracts (ebracteate). Flowers on short or long pedicels. Corolla often white, funnel-shaped (infundibuliform), cup-shaped or rotate, the lobes often ending in an abrupt, short point (apiculate).
Fruit:- Ovoid, mostly dry and glabrous.
Series ERECTA
General description:- Plants green or covered with a waxy frost-like powder or bloom (glaucous-pruinose).
Stems:- 4-angled.
Leaves:- Usually less than 25 mm, but sometimes up to 40 mm, elliptical to thread-like (filiform), the two surfaces more or less the same colour (concolorous).
Flowers:- Inflorescence narrowly oblong to ovoid, with lower branches short or long; partial inflorescences usually pyramidal; stalks (pedicels) sometimes stout, often somewhat wide spreading (divaricate) after flowering (anthesis). Corolla often white, or greenish, yellowish and reddish, rotate (or slightly cup-shaped), with usually apiculate lobes.
G. MULLUGO Group
Stems:- 30-150 cm, often robust, erect to trailing along the ground (procumbent), glabrous or with hairs 0·5-1·5 mm. Middle internodes of flowering stems longer than the leaves.
Leaves:- 10-40 x 1·5-7 mm, oblong to oblanceolate-midrib slender, less than half as wide as the leaf; margin not or slightly revolute.
Inflorescence:- Broadly ovoid to oblong, with branches up to 40 cm. Corolla white to yellowish (rarely reddish) glabrous.
Fruit:- Brown.
Sect. ORIENTIGALIUM
General description:- Perennial herbs, often with filiform stolons.
Stems:- 4-angled, glabrous or hairy but never retrorsely aculeolate.
Leaves:- In whorls of (5-)6-7(-8), 1-veined, obtuse, acute or with a hyaline apex.
Flowers:- Inflorescence few-flowered, with usually ebracteate ultimate branches, sometimes reduced to single axillary flowers; pedicels stout, erect and not divaricate in fruit. Corolla infundibuliform or cup-shaped, white or pink; lobes acute or obtuse. Ovary usually glabrous, smooth or finely granulate.
Fruit:- Usually glabrous, smooth or finely granulate.
Sect. THLIPHTHISA
General description:- Dwarf shrubs or perennial herbs, with a woody taproot, without rhizomes or stolons.
Leaves:- In whorls of 6-8(-11), elliptical to linear, 1-veined, obtuse to acuminate at the apex.
Flowers:- Inflorescence pyramidal to ovoid, leafy more or less throughout; partial inflorescences with bracts and bracteoles. Corolla 4-merous, infundibuliform to rotate, purplish, reddish, brownish, greenish, yellowish or whitish, externally smooth and glabrous or hairy. Ovary and fruit oblong, truncate at apex, glabrous and more or less granulate, rarely hairy.