· The Cruciferae is also known as the mustard family.
· This family includes 375 genera and 3200 species.
· The plants are found abundantly in the northern hemisphere and distributed worldwide.
· This family includes vegetables, flowers and wild varieties.
1. Habit habitat:
· Annual or biennial or sometimes perennial, herbs, rarely shrubs, wild or cultivated, terrestrial, mesophytic.
2. Root:
· Taproot and branched or modified (fusiform e.g. Raphanus sativus, Napiform e.g. B. rapa), sometimes adventitious e.g. Rorippa.
3. Stem:
· Erect, herbaceous, branched, cylindrical, solid, hairy or glabrous, green, sometimes stem is condensed or thickened (B. oleraces, R. sativs)
4. Leaf:
· Exstipulate, petiolate or sessile, alternate, rarely opposite, simple, cauline and Ramal or radical, lyrate, lobed or entire, acute, glabrous, unicostate, reticulate venation.
5. Inflorescence:
· Racemose, Receme or Corymb
6. Flower:
· Ebracteate, ebracteolate, pedicellate, hermaphrodite, complete, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, hypogynous, tetramerous, small, white or yellow.
7. Calyx:
· Sepals-4, polysepalous, sepaloid, sepals in two whorls, 2 in each whorl, hairy or glabrous, imbricate aestivation.
8. Corolla:
· Petals-4, polypetalous, cruciform, each petal consists of limb and claw, alternate with sepals, petaloid, velvet or imbricate aestivation.
9. Androecium:
· Stamens - 6, tetramerous, polyandrous.
· Anther – bicelled, dithecous, basifixed, introse
10. Gynoecium:
· Carpels-2, bicarpellary, syncarpous.
· Ovary - superior, unilocular or bilocular,
· placentation: parietal.
· Style – short.
· Stigma – bilobed or glabrous.
11. Fruit: Siliqua
12. Seed:
· Dicotyledonous and Non-endospermic
13. Floral Formula: Ebr. ⊕ ⚥ K2+2 C4 A2+4 G(2)
Systemic position
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Angiosperm
Class: Dicotyledonae
Subclass: Polypetalae
Series: Thalamiflorae
Order: Parietals
Family: Cruciferae
Division: Angiosperm
Class: Dicotyledonae
Subclass: Polypetalae
Series: Thalamiflorae
Order: Parietals
Family: Cruciferae
Distinguishing characters of Cruciferae Family:
· Herbaceous stem,· Alternate leaves,
· Racemose inflorescence, ebracteate, tetramerous,
· Sepals – 4, polysepalous,
· Petals – 4, polypetalous, cruciform,
· Stamens – 6, tetradynamous,
· Fruit is siliqua.
Common plants of the Cruciferae Family:
1. Brassica rapa (Turnip)
2. Brassica campestris (Mustard)
3. B. juncea
4. B. oleracea var. botrytis (cauliflower)
5. B. Oleracea var. capitata (cabbage)
6. B. Oleracea var. gongylodes
7. Lepidium sativum
8. Raphanus sativus – Raddish
9. Iberis amara – candytuft
10. Capsella bursa–pastoris (Shepherd's purse)
Some economically important plants of the Cruciferae family are:
1. Brassica campestris, (TORI): Important for oil and vegetable
2. B. rapa, (Turnip): Important for vegetable
3. B. nigra, (RAYO): Important for oil and vegetable
4. B. oleracea, (CAULI): Important vegetable and Anticancer
5. Raphnus sativus (MULA): Important vegetable
6. Lepidium sativum (CHAMSUR): Important vegetable
High Yielding Points from TAXONOMY
1. Shapes of corolla:
a. Cruciform: cross(x) like corolla eg. Cruciferae
b. Tubular: tube-like eg. sunflower
c. Papilionaceous: butterfly shape eg. legumes
d. Bilabiate: 2 lipped eg. libiatae
e. Personate (masked): bilabiate corolla with a narrow opening
a. Cruciform: cross(x) like corolla eg. Cruciferae
b. Tubular: tube-like eg. sunflower
c. Papilionaceous: butterfly shape eg. legumes
d. Bilabiate: 2 lipped eg. libiatae
e. Personate (masked): bilabiate corolla with a narrow opening
2. Types of nomenclature:
a. Holotype: Specimen used by the author to confer scientific name to species
b. Isotype: Duplicate of holotype
c. Paratype: specimen cited with the original description other than holotype or isotype
d. Neotype: If the original specimen is lost it can be substituted by another specimen collected from the same locality
e. Lectotype: Specimen selected from the original material selected to serve as nomenclature type [@ HIPaNL]
3. Famous book ‘Species Plantarum’ was written by Carolus Linnaeus but ‘Genera Plantarum by Batham and Hooker
4. In the artificial system of classification, one or two characters are considered given by Carolus Linnaeus
5. In the natural system of classification, a large no. of traits are considered, given by Bantham and Hooker
6. Phylogenetic system of classification was given by A. Engler, Karl A. Prant and John Hutchinson.
Also, Read Notes of other Lessons of Botany: