The World Flora Online

Herbes annuelles ou pérennes, arbustes, arbres ou lianes, inermes ou épineux, à croissance sympodiale, glabres ou pubescents à poils simples, ramifiés ou étoilés, glanduleux ou non. Stipules absentes. Feuilles alternes ou par 2 ou 3, pétiolées ou sessiles, simples à pennatifides, plus rarement composées. Inflorescences en cymes terminales, axillaires ou oppositifoliées, ramifiées ou non, fleurs parfois solitaires. Fleurs généralement parfaites, plus rarement unisexuées, (4–)5(–6)-mères, actinomorphes ou parfois zygomorphes, le plus souvent pédicellées ; calice gamosépale, souvent persistant, parfois accrescent sur le fruit, avec (4–)5(–10) lobes à préfloraison valvaire ou imbriquée ; corolle gamopétale, étoilée, rotacée, tubuleux ou infundibuliforme, blanche, jaune, rouge, rose, pourpre ou bleue, parfois tachetée, divisée en (4–)5(–10) lobes à préfloraison valvaire ou imbriquée ; étamines (2–)5(–8), insérées sur le tube de la corolle et alternipétales, égales ou inégales, staminodes parfois présents, anthères basi-, ventri- ou dorsifixes, déhiscentes par des pores terminaux ou des fentes longitudinales, souvent conniventes ; disque hypogyne présent ou absent ; ovaire supère, avec 2(–5) loges, ovules le plus souvent nombreux, anatropes à campylotropes, à placentation axile sur des placentas saillants ; style unique, stigmate capité, claviforme ou bilobé. Fruits : capsules à déhiscence longitudinale ou baies glabres ou pubescentes, ou, plus rarement, drupes, parfois inclus dans un calice accrescent, généralement à nombreuses graines. Graines réniformes à ovoïdes, parfois aplaties ; embryon droit, courbé ou annulaire, endosperme abondant.

Famille cosmopolite surtout néotropicale, comprenant 97 genres et environ 2700 espèces ; au Gabon un seul genre indigène, Solanum L., avec 15 espèces (dont trois introduites et naturalisées et trois uniquement cultivées) et 5 genres introduits (Brugmansia Pers., Capsicum L., Nicotiana L., Physalis L. et Schwenckia L.) avec 6 espèces.

Stamens usually 5, equal or unequal, alternating with the corolla lobes, sometimes 4 and didynamous or elsewhere rarely 2 or 1, arising from and often proximally adnate to the corolla tube, sometimes thickened or geniculate at the junction, exserted or included; anthers generally 2-thecous, basifixed or dorsifixed, the thecae sometimes divergent basally, rarely 1-thecous, dehiscing by longitudinal slits or terminal pores; staminodes sometimes present Disk below or around the ovary, sometimes absent Ovary superior or rarely partly inferior (as in Solandra), sessile to shortly stipitate, mostly 2-locular, sometimes appearing 3–5(or more)-locular by false dissepiments, with generally numerous anatropous ovules; style simple; stigma terminal, punctiform, capitate, clavate or bilobed Calyx minutely toothed to deeply lobed, sometimes enlarged in fruit, valvate or imbricate in bud; epicalyx of teeth, umbos or a basal swelling sometimes present Corolla rotate, stellate, campanulate, infundibuliform or tubular, elsewhere rarely 2-lipped; aestivation various but often plicate or contorted, rarely valvate or imbricate Inflorescences cymose, terminal, leaf-opposed or axillary, simple or branched, sometimes reduced to fascicles or single flowers; bracts and bracteoles sometimes present; pedicels often articulated Flowers usually hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual, the plants then monoecious or elsewhere rarely dioecious, actinomorphic to rarely zygomorphic, (4)5(pleio)-merous, sometimes heterostylous Fruit a capsule, dehiscing by 2–4 valves or circumscissile, or an indehiscent berry Herbs, shrubs or trees, sometimes climbing, with sympodial growth (see note below); hairs simple, branched or stellate, sometimes glandular, often interspersed with small spherical glands, the hairs sometimes modified as bristles or prickles Seeds usually numerous, with generally copious endosperm; embryo circinnate or straight; cotyledons ± terete to flattened and linear Leaves alternate, sometimes paired (geminate) by internode shortening (then usually unequal) or appearing opposite, rarely verticillate, exstipulate (but pseudostipules sometimes present in the leaf axil), petiolate or sessile, entire to dissected Disk below or around the ovary, sometimes absent Ovary superior or rarely partly inferior (as in Solandra), sessile to shortly stipitate, mostly 2-locular, sometimes appearing 3–5(or more)-locular by false dissepiments, with generally numerous anatropous ovules; style simple; stigma terminal, punctiform, capitate, clavate or bilobed Calyx minutely toothed to deeply lobed, sometimes enlarged in fruit, valvate or imbricate in bud; epicalyx of teeth, umbos or a basal swelling sometimes present Corolla rotate, stellate, campanulate, infundibuliform or tubular, elsewhere rarely 2-lipped; aestivation various but often plicate or contorted, rarely valvate or imbricate Inflorescences cymose, terminal, leaf-opposed or axillary, simple or branched, sometimes reduced to fascicles or single flowers; bracts and bracteoles sometimes present; pedicels often articulated Flowers usually hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual, the plants then monoecious or elsewhere rarely dioecious, actinomorphic to rarely zygomorphic, (4)5(pleio)-merous, sometimes heterostylous Fruit a capsule, dehiscing by 2–4 valves or circumscissile, or an indehiscent berry Herbs, shrubs or trees, sometimes climbing, with sympodial growth (see note below); hairs simple, branched or stellate, sometimes glandular, often interspersed with small spherical glands, the hairs sometimes modified as bristles or prickles Seeds usually numerous, with generally copious endosperm; embryo circinnate or straight; cotyledons ± terete to flattened and linear Leaves alternate, sometimes paired (geminate) by internode shortening (then usually unequal) or appearing opposite, rarely verticillate, exstipulate (but pseudostipules sometimes present in the leaf axil), petiolate or sessile, entire to dissected

Fls perfect, hypogynous, sympetalous, typically 5-merous; cal usually gamosepalous, generally persistent; cor regular in most genera, rotate to tubular, the lobes commonly plicate (and sometimes also convolute) in bud, or seldom merely convolute, imbricate, or valvate; stamens borne on the cor-tube, as many as and alternate with the lobes, rarely fewer; ovary superior, mostly bicarpellate and bilocular, with the carpels obliquely oriented to the median plane of the fl, or seldom (as in Nicandra) the carpels and locules 3–5; style terminal, with a lobed stigma; ovules ± numerous on axile, often thickened placentas; fr a capsule or berry; seeds with a dicotyledonous, generally linear, often curved and subperipheral embryo, usually with an oily endosperm; herbs or less often shrubs or even trees, with alternate or (as in Petunia) falsely opposite lvs, the fls in various sorts of basically cymose infls, sometimes solitary at the nodes. 85/2800, nearly cosmop.