Stamen types by family: Fabaceae, Cruciferae, Malvaceae, Compositae, Graminae, Solanaceae, Liliaceae, how do I keep them apart?
Sara Fernandes11th Sample
14 Oct 2026 Β· 1 min read
My football season is on, so I'm doing this on the bus to the matches with a notebook on my knee, and I need something compact.
The chapter lists a bunch of families (Leguminosae/Fabaceae, Cruciferae, Malvaceae, Compositae, Graminae, plus Solanaceae and Liliaceae) and for each one there are features and examples. I can learn a few from the textbook, but the "stamens" row is where everything blends: diadelphous, monadelphous, syngenesious, tetradynamous, epipetalous. I have all the words, but I tend to put them into the wrong families.
So far I have: Solanaceae (potato, tomato, brinjal): 5 stamens, epipetalous. Liliaceae (onion, Aloe, Lilium): 6 stamens, perianth in two whorls of 3. Fabaceae (pea): papilionaceous flowers. Cruciferae (mustard): four petals in a cross.
Does someone have a cleaner way of connecting each family to (1) a flower feature, (2) a stamen type, (3) a fruit and (4) a couple of examples? I don't have much time per day, so one short answer per family would be perfect. Thanks, and sorry for the long list!
8 answers & replies
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[+][β]Pooja Iyer12thSampleΒ· 5d ago
Fabaceae (pea family)!! π± Corolla is papilionaceous: 5 petals, with one large standard (posterior), two lateral wings and two anterior keel petals (partly fused, boat-shaped). Stamens: diadelphous, usually 9 joined + 1 free (so 9+1). Ovary superior, one carpel, one chamber with many ovules. Fruit = legume (pod). Examples: pea, bean, gram, groundnut, soyabean. They also have root nodules with nitrogen-fixing bacteria, very handy for exam facts.
[+][β]Farhan ShaikhDropperSampleΒ· 5d ago
Cruciferae (Brassicaceae): 4 sepals, 4 petals in a cross (that's why "Cruciferae"), 6 stamens all of equal length so it's "hexamerous" (I think), ovary superior with 2 carpels, and the fruit is a siliqua (long pod) or silicula (short one). Examples: mustard, radish, cabbage, cauliflower. Cheap trick: cruciferae = cross + pod.
[+][β]Siddharth RaoDropperSampleΒ· 5d ago
Farhan, the stamens are the part you got wrong. In Cruciferae the 6 stamens are in two whorls: 2 short (outer) and 4 long (inner). That arrangement has a name, tetradynamous ("four strong"), and it's exactly the stamen type that Sara was asking for. The ovary is bicarpellary and syncarpous with a thin false partition (replum) dividing it into two chambers. Everything else you wrote is right.
[+][β]Sara Fernandes11thSampleΒ· 5d agoAuthor
saving this thread as a screenshot for the bus. Cruciferae = cross + 2 short, 4 long stamens (tetradynamous) + siliqua. thank you all!
[+][β]Tanvi Deshmukh12thSampleΒ· 5d ago
Malvaceae and Compositae, the ones people mix!! πΌ
Malvaceae (Hibiscus, cotton, okra) Compositae (sunflower, marigold) Special feature epicalyx (extra whorl of bracteoles under the calyx) capitulum (head) with ray and disc florets Stamens monadelphous (filaments joined in a tube), anthers kidney-shaped, one-chambered syngenesious (anthers united, filaments free) Ovary superior inferior Fruit capsule cypsela (calyx modified into pappus) [+][β]Kabir Joshi11thSampleΒ· 5d ago
as a coder, the stamen words look like an enum to me: DIADELPHOUS, MONADELPHOUS, SYNGENESIOUS, TETRADYNAMOUS, EPIPETALOUS. then the families are just a lookup table. tanvi's table is basically that, lol
[+][β]Rahul DubeyDropperSampleΒ· 5d ago
Graminae (Poaceae), plain version: monocots like wheat, rice, maize, sugarcane, bamboo. Fibrous roots. Stem is a cylindrical culm, hollow between nodes and solid at the nodes. Flowers sit in spikelets, each flower enclosed by two scales, the lemma and palea, and have two tiny lodicules. Stamens = 3. Ovary = one-carpel, one ovule, stigma feathery. Fruit = caryopsis (grain), where the seed coat is fused with the fruit wall. If a question says "caryopsis", it's a grass.
[+][β]Mehak AroraDropperSampleΒ· 5d ago
Your two (Solanaceae and Liliaceae) are correct, Sara! Add a bit:
- Solanaceae: flowers actinomorphic and bisexual, sepals united and persistent, corolla united, 5 stamens epipetalous (attached to the petals), ovary superior, bicarpellary, placed obliquely with swollen placentae, fruit = berry or capsule. Potato, tomato, brinjal, chilli, Datura, tobacco, petunia.
- Liliaceae: monocots, perianth of 6 tepals in 2 whorls, 6 stamens, ovary superior and tricarpellary with 3 chambers, fruit capsule. Onion, garlic, Aloe, Lilium, Colchicum.
