| # The Families of Angiosperms |

L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz

### Gunneraceae Endl.

~ Haloragidaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Herbs. Plants non-succulent. Perennial; with a basal aggregation of leaves (the leaves all radical). Helophytic, or mesophytic. Leaves rhubarb-like, medium-sized to very large; alternate; strongly petiolate; sheathing; simple; often peltate; epulvinate. Lamina dissected to entire; ovate, or obovate; often more or less palmatifid; palmately veined; often cordate, or cuneate at the base. Leaves ligulate, or eligulate (depending on interpretation — there often being axillary rows of ligular or stipular ‘intravaginal scales’); stipulate, or exstipulate (in Australia, or always, depending on interpretation of the ‘ligule’). Stipules if interpreted as such, intrapetiolar; free of one another, or concrescent; ochreate, or not ochreate; scaly. Lamina margins entire, or serrate, or dentate. Leaf development not ‘graminaceous’.

Leaf anatomy. Stomata anomocytic. Lamina without secretory cavities. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (1 genus).

Axial (stem, wood) anatomy. Secretory cavities absent. Secondary thickening absent (the stem ostensibly polystelic: see illustration).

The vessel end-walls simple.

Reproductive type, pollination. Unisexual flowers present. Plants monoecious, or dioecious, or polygamomonoecious. Pollination anemophilous.

Inflorescence, floral, fruit and seed morphology. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in panicles, in racemes, and in spikes. Inflorescences scapiflorous; pseudo- terminal, or axillary. Flowers ebracteate; bracteolate; minute to small; 2(–3) merous; cyclic; tricyclic, or tetracyclic. Free hypanthium absent.

Perianth with distinct calyx and corolla, or sepaline (C sometimes lacking especially in female flowers, K sometimes very small); when present, 2–5; 1 whorled, or 2 whorled; isomerous, or anisomerous. Calyx 2(–3) (small or sometimes ‘almost lacking’); 1 whorled; polysepalous; valvate. Corolla when present, 2; 1 whorled; polypetalous.

Androecium (1–)2. Androecial members adnate (epipetalous), or free of the perianth; all equal; free of one another; 1 whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens. Stamens 1, or 2; reduced in number relative to the adjacent perianth to isomerous with the perianth; alternisepalous; opposite the corolla members (and epipetalous). Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; tetrasporangiate. Endothecium developing fibrous thickenings. Microsporogenesis simultaneous. Anther wall initially with one middle layer; of the ‘monocot’ type. Tapetum glandular. Pollen grains aperturate; 3(–5) aperturate; colpate; 2-celled.

Gynoecium 2 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; synovarious; inferior. Ovary 1 locular. Styles 2; free; apical. Stigmas dry type; papillate; Group II type. Placentation apical. Ovules in the single cavity 1; pendulous; non-arillate; anatropous; bitegmic; crassinucellate. Outer integument contributing to the micropyle. Embryo-sac development Peperomia-type. Polar nuclei fusing prior to fertilization. Antipodal cells formed; 6; not proliferating; ephemeral. Endosperm formation cellular.

Fruit sometimes brightly coloured, fleshy to non-fleshy; indehiscent; a drupe, or a nut. The drupes with one stone. Dispersal perhaps by birds, in at least some species. Seeds copiously endospermic. Endosperm oily. Embryo well differentiated (very small). Cotyledons 2. Embryo curved to bent (obcordate).

Physiology, phytochemistry. Not cyanogenic. Iridoids not detected. Proanthocyanidins absent. Flavonols present; kaempferol and quercetin. Ellagic acid present. Sieve-tube plastids P-type; type I (b).

Geography, cytology. Temperate to tropical. Tropical and southern temperate. X = 11, 12, 17, 18.

Taxonomy. Subclass Dicotyledonae; Crassinucelli. Dahlgren’s Superorder Rosiflorae; Gunnerales. Cronquist’s Subclass Rosidae; Haloragales. APG III core angiosperms; core eudicot (informal group above Superorder not specified); Superorder Myrothamnanae. APG IV Order Gunnerales.

Species 50. Genera 1; only genus, Gunnera.

Illustrations. • Gunnera perpensa, depicting male and female flowers; Bot. Mag. 50 (1823). • Gunnera cordifolia, as Milligania: Hook. Ic. Pl. 3 (1840). • Gunnera magellanica, as G. falklandica: male and female plants, Hook. Ic. Pl. 5–6 (1842–3). • Le Maout and Decaisne: Gunnera. • Gunnera chilensis stem: TS of an inner stele (Solereder, 1908).

We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, distributions of character states within any set of taxa, geographical distribution, genera included in each family, and classifications (Dahlgren; Dahlgren, Clifford, and Yeo; Cronquist; APG). See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.

Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 8th June 2026. delta-intkey.com’.

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