Hello Everyone,
For our second blog posting I would like to tell me
about your favorite plant. I would like for you to include:
- Common name
-
Plant Family
-
Scientific name
-
Botanical description including: Where
the plant is found (range), growth form, growth habit, flower morphology, leaf
morphology, fruit morphology.
-
Plant Family description including:
Family characteristics.
-
Picture of the plant. You can link to an
image, or upload a picture and share it with a photo sharing site.
I will demonstrate by describing my favorite. My
favorite plant is the Live Oak tree.
Common name: Southern Live Oak
Plant Family: Fagaceae
Scientific Name: Quercus
virginiana Miller
Botanical description: Live oaks are found in sandy
soil in the southern coastal plain of the United States. Live oaks are medium
sized evergreen trees with wide-spreading branches. Leaves are dark green, coriaceous
(leathery) – thick, dark and shiny. Leaves are oblong to elliptic, mostly 4-6
cm long. Live oaks are monecious. Flowers are small and borne on catkins
(cylindrical flower cluster). Fruit of the live oak are acorns. Acorns are around
2 cm long, with a turban-shaped cup. Acorns are borne singly or in clusters of
2-5. Live oaks are often found with lots of Spanish moss growing on their
branches.
Family description: Plants in the Fagaceae family
are monecious trees or shrubs. Leaves are simple, alternate, entire or lobed.
Staminate flowers are borne on axillary catkins. Female flowers have 3 styles.
The fruit is a nut enclosed or partially enclosed in a cup. This family
includes chestnuts, beeches and oaks.
Check out some pictures I took recently of the ‘Angel
Oak’ a huge live oak near Charleston, SC - http://imgur.com/a/DKgPJ
I suggest using the USDA plants website as a
starting point (plants.usda.gov/).
This post is about the wild ginger plant.
ReplyDelete- It is in the Aristolochiaceae family
- The scientific name is *Asarum canadense* (italics!)
- This is commonly called Canadian wild ginger, but it is found in the deciduous forests of all of eastern North America. It grows as a flowering vascular plant of the Birthwort family. The underground shoots are fleshy rhizomes. It is a low, clonal, stemless perennial herb; leaves are heart-shaped. Flowers are close to the ground, and vary in color from green to brown or maroon. It blooms in April to May. It spreads indefinitely by rhizomes to form dense carpets of downy, heart-shaped, dark green leaves. Tiny, urn-shaped, ground-hugging, maroon-brown flowers bloom in April and May, but are hidden by the foliage.
- The Aristolochiaceae are magnoliids. Members of this family produce the toxin aristolochic acid, which discourages herbivores and is known to be carcinogenic in rats. They are mostly perennial, herbaceous, shrubs, vines or lianas.
- here's an image:
http://www.eattheweeds.com/wild-ginger/
My favorite plant is the basjoo banana tree.
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Musaceae
Scientific Name: *Musa basjoo*
Botanical Description: Originally from Japan and East Asia, Basjoo banana trees are herbaceous perennials that can grow as far north as zone 5. The underground rhizome can endure frost, and while the leaves and stems may die off, the tree will re-sprout when temperatures warm. Male and female flowers are produced on the same inflorescence. Its bananas grow to be 2-4 inches and are actually inedible. Leaves are large, light-green, and waxy.
Family Description: Plants in the Musaceae family are native to tropics of Africa and Asia. Trunks are pseudostems- they're formed by leaf sheaths. Leaves are spirally arranged at the crown, and may grow up to 3 meters long. Leaves have a sturdy "midrib" (the large "vein" that supports the leaf) to which parallel veins are join at right or slightly oblique angles. Plants have yellow flowers, which have 5 stamens and a rich supply of nectar. The common banana, *M. sapientum* is another member of this family.
Here is a photo of basjoo: http://alswaed.com/Uploadedimage/originalImg/11_11_11_04_42_Banana-Tree-Basjoo-Japanese-Fiber.jpg
Common Name: Sweet Olive, Tea Olive
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Oleaceae
Scientific Name: Osmanthus fragrans(italics)
Botanical Description: Native to Asia, the sweet olive is an evergreen shrub or small tree. It has dark green opposite leaves, approximately 7-15 cm long with smooth or finely toothed margins. It has small flowers that grow in clusters. They occur in white, yellow, or orange-yellow. They are extremely fragrant. The tea olive blooms from the fall, with scattered blooming through the winter, and continued blooming into the spring. The fruit produced from flowering is a small purple-black drupe, containing a single seed.
Family Description: The Oleaceae family is characterized by opposite leaves. The family has been well established for a long while, leading to a wide distribution with modern species occurring on all major continents except for Antarctica. The highest biodiversity occurs in Southeast Asia and Australia. Seed dispersal occurs by way of wind or animal. Many members of the family are economically important. The olives in the family are important for their fruit and oils extracted from those fruits. Many other varieties are valuable as ornamentals.
Image link: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/landscape/shrubs/hgic1083.html
My favorite plant is the Aloe vera
ReplyDeleteCommon name: Barbados aloe
Plant family: Aloaceae
Scientific name: Aloe vera (L.) Burm. f.
Botanical description: Aloe plants grow in tropical climates from the southernmost U.S. (Florida, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Hawaii) to the Caribbean. They are succulents and are well adapted to drought conditions but are hardy enough to handle extreme conditions such as heavy rain and frost. Because of this, they have been cultivated all over the world. It is a bushy succulent with green fleshy leaves called spikes which are filled with clear gelatinous liquid. Mature plant has spikes up to 3 feet high with dense, arrow-shaped clusters of yellow or orange flowers.
Family description: The Aloaceae family contains most of the old world succulents. Of the subdivided family Asphodelaceae, it is a family of monocotyledonous plants of the subclass Liliidae. They are mostly herbs, usually with petaloid sepals and petals and compound pistils.
Here are some pictures of my Aloe plants at home:
http://imgur.com/ow4rRH9
http://imgur.com/22ITfwX
Nice, it looks like your aloe plants are nice and healthy. I was confused at first - I didn't recognize the Aloaceae family. Turns out, other people classify them in the Xanthorrhoeaceae family. Things like this happen a good bit nowadays - genetic evidence causes plant biologists to rearrange phylogenetic trees and assign new family names in place of old ones.
DeleteMy favorite plant (of the day at least) is the tea plant
ReplyDeletescientific name: Camellia sinensis var. sinensis Kuntze
plant family: Theaceae
botanical description: Camellia sinensis is a large evergreen shrub (can reach 17m, although most often pruned to 2m/5ft) native to Southeast Asia (ranging from Sri Lanka to China), but widely planted in tropical and subtropical areas. The flowers are small (2-5cm), white or pinkish petals arranged radially in groups of 5-7 with numerous yellow stamen. The flowers are strongly scented and can occur singly or in clusters of up to four. The leaves of the tea plant simple, alternately arranged, relatively small and narrow, bright green and shiny, often with a hairy underside and serrated margins. The fruits are small brownish-green globose capsules.
The plant is medicinally valued for its caffeine and polyphenol content, also popular in the Ayurvedic tradition as an astringent and nerve tonic. It is culturally and ritually important in China and Japan, having a long historical use in both of those nations.
Theaceae family description
flowers: actinomorphic (radial) and bisexual. large and showy
fruit: capsule, rarely an achene or berry. seeds flattened.
leaves: simple, alternate, evergreen. margins serrate.
form: shrubs or small trees
range: pantropical, but mostly East Asia and the New World
http://imgur.com/RE6fPiI (flower)
http://imgur.com/0ojNtrz (botanical illustration)
http://imgur.com/QF10VO1 (field cultivation)
http://imgur.com/AM2ahxG (dried leaves)
Common Name: Echinacea
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Asteraceae
Scientific Name: Echinacea purpurea Moench
Botanical Description: Echinacea are found growing in moist or even dry plains in eastern and central North America. They have large heads consisting of composite flowers and tall stems, about 3 inches long, that bear pink or purple petals. It has a large, central cone that is usually brown or purple that is actually a seed head with sharp spines. Echinacea blooms in the early to late summer. Its leaves are dark green, lance-shaped and coarsely toothed.
Family Characteristics: The Asteraceae family is a family of Angiospermae. Members of the family are herbaceous, with a notable amount of shrubs, vines and trees. Members of this family favor arid regions of subtropical or temperate conditions. Leaves can be very diverse, from alternate, opposite and even whorled. They can be simple, but mostly are lobed or incised. The flowers’ main characteristic is their inflorescence. Members of this family can be asters, sunflowers or daisies.
Here’s some pretty Echinacea flowers: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hG25RSJdfdE/S9cd7Lr7PqI/AAAAAAAAA-A/o56oVcc2twI/s1600/EchinaceaPurpureaMagnus.jpg
Cool. You will see a lot of these planted around here in the spring. Except most people refer to it as a purple coneflower instead of calling it Echinaceae.
DeleteCommon Name: Southern Magnolia
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Magnoliaceae
Scientific Name: Magnolia grandiflora L.
Botanical Description: The Southern Magnolia is native to the southeastern US. They are usually found from Virginia to central Florida and as far west as Texas and Oklahoma. In places with well draining soil.The trees usually grow to 90 feet. The Southern Magnolia is an evergreen tree with large dark green leathery leaves. The leaves are simple and broadly ovate with smooth margins. The leaves are around 5 to 8 inches long. The flowers are large white flowers which are very fragrant. They have 6 to 12 petals and emerge from the tips of twigs on mature trees. The flowers usually come in late spring. After the petals drop off the is rose colored fruit left over. The Southern Magnolia tends to be used as an ornamental.
Family Description: Plants in the Magnoliaceae family have flowers with their stamens and pistils in spirals on a conical receptacle.The flowers also tend to have flowers and sepals that look alike or tepals. Leaves are alternate, simple, and sometimes lobed. Most flowers in this family are beetle pollinated, and seeds are bird dispersed.
Link to a picture http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FBb7SJ9ZqZw/TWDk9HPHZHI/AAAAAAAAAxc/ocfyeLEVWEM/s1600/MagnoliaTree.JPG
Common Name: Sunflower
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Asteraceae
Scientific Name: Helianthus annuus L.
Botanical Description: Sunflowers are native to the United States but were later brought to Europe. They are a dicot with a stalk that is usually around 4-6 feet tall. The flower is a composite head with yellow ray flowers surrounding the brown disk flowers. The flower heads may be up to 30 cm across. The flower heads face the sun and follow its path during the day. The heads become black when they mature and the flowers drop off which exposes the seeds. The leaves are ovate to elliptic with an obtuse pointed blade and are 30-40cm long and 35 cm wide.
Plant Family Description: The main feature of the family is the composite flower heads. Much of the family is herbaceous but it does include shrubs, vines and trees. They generally have taproots and the leaves can be alternate, opposite, or whorled. The most obvious characteristic of the family is the composite head which generally looks like a single flower but is, in fact many.
There are many uses for the sunflower which range from medicinal, to food to dyes. The seeds are most commonly used for food and there is evidence that various other parts were used in medicines for snake bites among Native Americans.
This is my favorite flower because I associate it with my summers in Italy. I work on an archaeological dig and we live on a Tuscan farm/vineyard. Every other summer they plant sunflowers in the fields on either side of the house and I love to just sit and look at the scenery after a long day’s work. The link I am posting is to the dig’s website and there is a picture on this page of the sunflowers I get to see.
http://smu.edu/poggio/fieldschool.html
Common name: Southern Bald-Cypress
ReplyDeleteFamily: Cupressaceae
Scientific name: Taxodium distichum
Botanical description: Bald cypress is a large deciduous conifer which frequently reaches 100 to 120 feet in height and 3 to 6 feet in diameter. Its trunk is massive, tapered, and buttressed. The leaves are alternate, linear, and flat with blades generally spreading around the twig. The bark is thin and fibrous. It is monoecious. It develops a taproot as well as horizontal roots that lie just below the surface and extend 20 to 50 feet before bending down. It develops knees that grow above water providing additional support. Bald cypress is widely distributed along the Atlantic Coastal Plain from southern Delaware to southern Florida, westward along the lower Gulf Coast Plain to southeastern Texas.
Family description: A family of twenty-eight (many monotypic) genera and 142 species. That makes it the largest conifer family in terms of genera, and the third-largest in terms of species. Many members of the cypress family are important as timber sources or ornamentals, especially arborvitae, cypress, bald cypress, and juniper. They also contain useful oils, resins, and tannins.
pic
http://i.imgur.com/6rBPD8k.jpg
Common name: Persian Buttercup
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Ranunculaceae
Scientific name: Ranunculus asiaticus
Botanical description: It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 12-19 inches tall, with simple or branched stems. The basal leaves are three-lobed, with leaves higher on the stems more deeply divided; like the stems, they are downy or hairy. The flowers are 1-2 inches diameter, variably red to pink, yellow, or white, with one to several flowers on each stem. This particular Ranunculus variety is a garden favorite and popular in floristry.
Family description: Plants in the The Ranunculaceae family have poisonous flesh when eaten fresh. Most abundant in temperate or cool regions of the northern and southern hemispheres. Consists of about 1,800 species and 50 genera.
The name is Latin for "little frog".
http://www.garden.org/images/App/articles/757a.jpg
One of my favorite trees is the pecan tree.
ReplyDeleteCommon name: Pecan
Plant family: Juglandaceae
Scientific name: Carya illinoinensis K. Koch
Botanical Description: This is a large deciduous tree that can grow up to 140 feet in height. The leaves are alternate, odd-pinnately compound with 9-17 leaflets. The fruits are nuts that are 1-2 inches long, borne in clusters of three to twelve, are encased in husks, and they ripen in the fall. The tree produces both male and female flowers. The bark is grayish brown. The trees are native to central North America, and are popular here in Georgia.
Family description: The pecan tree is part of the walnut family. Trees from this family are native to North America, Europe, and Asia. They have aromatic leaves that are pinnately compound. The trees in this family are important nut producers and are wind pollinated.
Pecan was used by the Comanche for ringworm treatment, and by the Kiowa for tuberculosis.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cjstiles/8231459882/
Common name: Quaking Aspen
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Salicaceae
Scientific name: Populus tremuloides Michx.
Quaking Aspen is a deciduous, adaptive tree that grows in mountainous areas across a wide range including most of Canada, Alaska, Northern and Western United States as well as some parts of Mexico. It is generally found between elevations of 1,500-3,700 m.
It is a tall and fast growing tree that reaches 20-25 m high with a trunk width of 20-80 cm diameter. Its leaves are 4-8 cm in diameter, slightly spade shaped but relatively round with small rounded teeth along the edges. Their petiole is about 3-7 cm, flattened and characteristically flexible in all directions – giving the tree the appearance of quaking, hence the name. The flowers are 4-6 cm catkins produced before the leaves in early spring. The tree is dioecious, so male and female catkins are on different trees. The fruit grows in string-like, pendulous capsules, like pea pods. Each capsule is about 10 cm long and contains about ten seeds surrounded by cotton-like fluff.
I love this tree because it grows in clonal colonies in which it propogates itself through root sprouts. This means that a whole grove of Aspen trees is actually one organism. In the fall, the leaves all turn a beautiful gold at the same time, which creates an interesting contrast in forests of primarily evergreen trees on mountainsides.
The Salicaceae family is commonly known as the willow family and encompasses both trees and shrubs that predominantly grow in north temperate areas. These angiosperms have deciduous leaves that are arranged alternately along woody stems. The flowers develop in male and female catkins. The number of stamens can range widely from one to many, while the stigmas are often limited between two and four and are often two-lobed with solitary ovaries. The fruits form as capsules that contain many small seeds shrouded in tufts of silky material which makes the seeds more easily dispersed in the wind.
http://shelledy.mesa.k12.co.us/staff/computerlab/images/CO_Plants_Aspen_Fall.JPG
Aspens are super cool. I worked in the Sierra Nevadas as an archaeologist for a few years, and we used to find things we called "arborglphys". Basically, Basque sheepherders in the early 1900s would carve pictures, names, dates into aspen trees. Often these sheepherders were lonely, so some of the carvings would be quite graphic. Here is an example - http://www.hcn.org/issues/42.10/new-world-new-canvas/lagun2.jpg
DeleteCommon Name: Silver Maple
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Aceraceae
Scientific Name: Acer saccharinum L.
Botanical Description: The silver maple is a large tree that can grow from 100-140 feet in height. The leaves are palmately lobed simple, with 5 lobes on each leaf, opposite, 4-6 inches long and nearly as wide, dull green above and silvery white beneath, and they turn pale yellow or soft gold in the autumn. The flowers are greenish to yellow from reddish buds. The male flowers are fascicled, and the female are in drooping racemes. The species is essentially dioecious. The fruits are winged nutlets (called samaras) the are light brown with pink veins and grow in pairs. The bark is grey and thin. The silver maple is native to the eastern US and extends across the central US and up into Canada. Silver maple sap is used ethnobotanically by the Native Americans for a wide range of physical remedies such as: coughs, cramps, measles, dysentery, venereal diseases, and more.
Family Description: The maple family included deciduous trees and shrubs with opposite, palmately lobed simple or pinnately compound leaves. The plants can be monoecious or dioecious. The fruits are double samaras with 2 wings. The maple family has genera native to China and across the Northern Hemisphere, but especially to the eastern US.
http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Acer+saccharinum
I use this stuff for tension headaches. I take it as a tincture in hot chocolate and it makes me feel like a puddle of bliss.
ReplyDeleteCommon Name: American Skullcap, blue skullcap
Plant Family: Lamiaceae
Scientific Name: Scutellaria lateriflora L
Botanical description:
Blue skullcap is a perennial herb growing to 0.6 m (2ft) by 0.4 m (1ft 4in). It is found through most of the United States (save three western states) and southern Canada. It is hardy to zone 7 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from June to August, and the seeds ripen from July to September. The plant is densely covered in simple and glandular hairs and the thin stems are heavily branched and grow purple in heavy sun. The light green leaves range between ovate and lanceolate, and have rounded teeth on the edges. The flowers rarely grow from the main stem, instead growing of the side stems all the way up the height of the plant. Blooms range in color from lavender to violet.
Lamiaceae: Colloquially known as the "mint family." The plants are frequently aromatic in all parts and include many widely used culinary herbs, as well as some shrubs, trees, and, rarely, vines. The leaves emerge oppositely, each pair at right angles to the previous one or whorled. The flowers are bilaterally symmetrical with 5 united petals, 5 united sepals. They are usually bisexual and have flower clusters that look like a whorl of flowers but actually consist of two crowded clusters. Other members of the family include basil, mint, rosemary, sage, savory, marjoram, oregano, hyssop, thyme, lavender, and perilla.
PIC: http://www.wildflower.org/image_archive/640x480/RWS/RWS_IMG0845.JPG
Lamiaceae is a huge family, and include the salvias (the sages). One key characteristic of the family is that the stems are square in cross section. This makes plants in this family really easy to identify, and there are tons of them that grow around here.
DeleteCommon Name: Eastern Redcedar
ReplyDeleteFamily: Cupressaceae
Scientific Name: Juniperus virginiana L.
Botanical Description: Eastern Redcedars are found throughout the east including the lower and upper Midwest. They prefer limestone derived soils. They are small evergreen trees that are usually found between 10 to 40 feet. They are pyramidal in shape but become more rounded in age. They have pale-blue fruit with whitish bloom that have fleshy cones that appear to be berries. The cones are ¼ inch in diameter. Their leaves are opposite and scale like. Their bark is reddish-brown, thin and easily shreds. Bark is a good material for starting fires. Also the berries were used to make a tea that was good to stop vomiting.
Family Description: Cupressaceae is the cypress family. Plants in this family are all conifers, and also include junipers and redwoods. They are monoecious, subcioecious or sometimes doecious trees and shrubs. Their bark is usually orange to red to brown and stringy. The bark also usually flakes or peels in vertical strips. The leaves are usually spirally but also in decussate pairs or in decussate whorls. The seed cones are usually woody, leathery or as in the case with the redcedar berry-like and fleshy.
Image link: http://www.treetopics.com/juniperus_virginiana/gallery1.htm
Common name: Andean Wax Palm
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Arecaceae/Palmae
Scientific Name: Ceroxylon quindiuense (Karsten) Wendland
Botanical description: The Andean Wax Palm is native to the cloud forests of Colombia, and is found at altitudes between 2000-3000m. The plant has a regular, hemispherical crown, with foliage at the top. It is an evergreen with large, feathered leaves that are light green, 3-4m long, and have a yellowish underside. The spine is somewhat curved; the husk of the leaf forms a wide cover that covers the trunk. As the palm begins to produce flowers and fruit, hanging creamy white inflorescences appear at its base, which develop red-orange infructescences, as it matures. Each bunch has 3000-6000 seeds. The trunk, or stem, is cylindrical, erect, with dark rings left by leaves falling as the palm grows until it reaches a height of 60m, where it rounds off with its crest of leaves. These dark rings contrast with the white trunk, due to the wax that covers it, from which originates the palm’s common name. Roots are abundant, resistant, and somewhat deep. The palm prefers humid soils with medium acidity, and thrives on slopes. It requires medium shade in its first stages of growth, and later, plain exposure.
Family description: The Arecaceae or “Palm family” are flowering monocots that are characterized by having large or very large evergreen leaves, each with a tubular sheathing base that typically splits open on one side at maturity. Leaves are arranged as alternate, petiolate, and palmately or pinnately cleft to once or twice compound. The inflorescence is usually paniculate and is typically subtended by one or more bracts or spathes that may become woody at maturity. The flowers are actinomorphic, generally small, and are bisexual or more often unisexual. Palms can grow solitarily or can exhibit clustering behavior.
Here are pictures at the San Francisco Botanical Gardens, as well as the palms in their native habitat, in Colombia. There is also a close-up of the trunk and its dark rings.
http://www.sfbotanicalgarden.org/Gardens/bloom_09_08.shtml
COMMON NAME: Monkey Puzzle Tree
ReplyDeletePLANT FAMILY: Araucariaceae
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Araucaria araucana
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION:
The Monkey Puzzle (sometimes known as the 'Monkey Tail’) Tree is native to lower slops of the Chilean/Argentinian Andes and is found 1000m above sea level. Since it's rise in popularity as an ornamental species after being named the National Tree of Chile, human's have cultivated and introduced the hardy species to many parts of the world; including North America, New Zealand, Australia, and certain parts of Europe. This evergreen conifer can grow up to two meters in diameter and reach a height of up to 50 meters under ideal conditions. This tree has also been known to live up to and over one thousand years.
The morphology of the leaves is as follows: They are ‘Spikey’, quite thick and triangular. They spiral across the branches as a defense mechanism, covering almost the entire tree (except the older growth of the tree which turns to brown ‘dead’ leaves). The tree is dioecious, meaning separate trees bear the male and female ‘cones’.
The family Araucariaceae has very similar characteristics in the sense that leaves are generally spikey and the other species in the family also grow very slowly. Some are dioecious and some are not.
Here is a link to a picture of one of the three seedlings i am currently growing as a birthday present for my dad, though im sure many of you are familiar with the Monkey Puzzle:
http://i47.tinypic.com/67uqlx.jpg
Sorry this is so late I completely forgot to post it last week.
Common name: common gardenia/ cape jasmine
ReplyDeletePlant Family: Rubiaceae
Scientific name: Gardenia jasminoides
Botanical description: Grows as a small, evergreen shrub with single or double larve ivory/white/yellow flowers. Leaves are whorled in threes or fours, dark, glossy, and leathery in a lanceolate shape. Flowers feature 5-12 petals in a funnel shaped corola 3in. in diameter, bloom in Spring and Autumn, and are heavily aromatic. Fruit is small, light green to bright red, oval shaped with 5 radially symmetrical lobes, used in herbal medicines to induce vomiting. Shrubs grow to 5 ft., are common in temperate zones as houseplants or ornamentals. Native to SE Asia.
Family description: Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants sometimes called the madder family or the coffee family. The group contains coffee, quinine, madder, west Indian jasmine, Gardenia, and many other plants growing typically in tropical and warmer climates. Rubiaceae are characterized by opposite leaves that are simple and entire, and by flowers with tubular corollas and an inferior ovary. Shrubs are most common in Rubiaceae, but members of the family can also be trees or herbs. Flowers are usually bisexual, have a 4–5 lobed calyx and generally a 4–5 lobed corolla, 4 or 5 stamens and two carpels. Rubiaceae features about 611 genera and over 13,000 species.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gardenia_jasminoides_cv1.jpg