Flora of North America species comparison

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Moraceae

Brosimum

mulberry family

breadnut, brosimum
Habit Trees, shrubs, herbs, or vines, deciduous or evergreen, frequently with milky sap. Trees, evergreen; sap milky.
Leaves

blade: margins entire, toothed, or lobed;

venation pinnate or with 3-5 basal palmate veins;

cystoliths often present in epidermal cells.

blade oblong, leathery, margins entire, never lobed;

venation pinnate.
Inflorescences

racemes, cymes, or capitula.

globose heads.
Flowers

unisexual, staminate and pistillate on same or different plants, small, occasionally on flattened torus, more often enclosed within fleshy, flask-shaped receptacle (syconium);

sepals 2-6, distinct or partly connate (vestigial in Brosimum).

staminate and pistillate on same plants;

perianth vestigial.
Staminate flowers

stamens equal in number to sepals or calyx lobes and opposite them, straight or inflexed;

anthers 1-2-locular.

numerous, surrounding 1-2 central pistillate flowers;

stamen 1, straight;

anther peltate, dehiscence circumscissile.
Pistillate flowers

sepals or calyx lobes 4, ± connate;

pistils 1, 1-2-carpellate;

ovary 1, superior or inferior, 1(-2)-locular;

ovules 1 per locule;

styles or style branches 1-2;

stigmas 1-2, entire.

borne inside receptacle;

bracts peltate;

ovary 1, inferior, 1-locular;

style 2-branched.
Fruits

multiple (syncarps);

individual achenes or drupelets partly or completely enclosed by enlarged common receptacle or by individual calyces.

Terminal

buds surrounded by bud scales.
Syncarps

somewhat globose; each achene embedded in enlarged, pulpy receptacle.
x

= 13.

Moraceae

Brosimum
Distribution
Widespread in tropical and subtropical regions; less common in temperate areas
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
Neotropical
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Genera ca. 40, species nearly 1100 (7 genera, 18 species in the flora).

Members of the large and diverse mulberry family are mainly woody and tropical; they are most abundant in Asia. The largest genera are Ficus, with approximately 750 species, and Dorstenia, with about 170 species. The family includes important timber trees, e.g., Chlorophora excelsa (Welwitsch) Bentham, iroko, from tropical Africa; Brosimum guianense (Aublet) Huber, letterwood, snakewood; and Ficus spp. Genera with species bearing edible fruits include the mulberries, Morus spp.; breadfruit and jackfruit, e.g., Artocarpus altilis (Parkinson) Fosberg and A. heterophyllus Lamarck; and figs, Ficus spp. Several species of Ficus are commonly cultivated in subtropical regions of the United States. These include F. carica Linnaeus; F. elastica Roxburgh ex Hornemann, India rubber plant; F. benghalensis Linnaeus, banyan; F. benjamina Linnaeus, weeping fig; F. pumila Linnaeus, creeping fig; and F. microcarpa Linnaeus f., Indian-laurel.

Rubber plants and weeping figs are commonly sold as houseplants. Economically, the most important species are those associated with the silk trade. Morus alba Linnaeus, M. indica Linnaeus, M. laevigata Wallis, and M. serrata Roxburgh, cultivated in many temperate and tropical countries, provide the natural food source for the silkworm, Bombyx mori Linnaeus.

Cudrania tricuspidata (Carrière) Bureau ex Lavallée, used as a food source for silkworms when Morus spp. are in short supply, is cultivated in North America as a hedge plant. The fruit is edible. Native to Korea and China, C. tricuspidata is known from a collection made in 1956 in McIntosh County, Georgia (S. B. Jones Jr. and N. C. Coile 1988), and it is naturalized in Orange County, North Carolina (R. D. Whetstone, pers. comm.).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species ca. 24 (1 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Herbs.
→ 2
1. Trees, shrubs, or vines.
→ 3
2. Plants lacking evident aerial stems, rhizomatous, perennial; inflorescences axillary, long-pedunculate.
Dorstenia
2. Plants caulescent, taprooted, annual; inflorescences axillary, short-pedunculate.
Fatoua
3. Flowers all borne on inside of syconium; terminal vegetative bud surrounded by pair of stipules.
Ficus
3. Flowers not borne on inside of syconium or only a solitary female flower immersed in receptacle; terminal vegetative bud scaly, not surrounded by pair of stipules.
→ 4
4. Margins of leaf blade toothed, often lobed; venation appearing palmate, or weakly 3-veined from base.
→ 5
4. Margins of leaf blade entire, never lobed; venation pinnate.
→ 6
5. Pistillate inflorescences globose; styles unbranched.
Broussonetia
5. Pistillate inflorescences cylindric; styles 2-branched.
Morus
6. Leaf blade ovate to lanceolate, not leathery; trees deciduous; syncarps 8-12 cm diam.
Maclura
6. Leaf blade oblong, leathery; trees evergreen; syncarps 1.5 cm diam.
Brosimum
Source FNA vol. 3, p. 388. Treatment author: Richard P. Wunderlin. FNA vol. 3. Treatment author: Richard P. Wunderlin.
Parent taxa Moraceae
Subordinate taxa
Brosimum, Broussonetia, Dorstenia, Fatoua, Ficus, Maclura, Morus
B. alicastrum
Name authority Link Swartz: Prodr., 12. 1788, name conserved
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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