Characteristic morphological features

Fagales are all trees or shrubs with simple leaves, or compound leaves in Juglandaceae and Rhoipteleaceae, usually arranged alternately (rarely opposite or whorled). Each plant generally contains tiny flowers of separate sexes (monoecious); unisexual flowers are primarily pollinated by the wind. The staminate is often arranged in hanging chains of flowers called catkins, and the pistillate sometimes is. The perianth is absent or represented by a single rudimentary whorl of tepals. The pistillate flowers are often subtended by a cupule (hull), which sometimes partially or completely encloses the fruit. There are generally two to many distinct stamens in each flower, although in some cases there is only one. The pistillate flowers (i.e., those without a functional stamen) contain 2, 3, or 6 (to 12) carpels, with the carpels united to form an inferior ovary with as many locules (cavities) as carpels, at least in the lower part of the ovary, but with the partitions often not reaching the summit of the ovary. The styles are distinct or united at the base, and each locule has one or two ovules. The fruit is a nut, samara, or drupe, often one or several together surrounded by a hull or cupule. The fruit of nut-bearing trees is composed of three layers: an outer skin, a middle pulpy zone, and an inner stony layer (endocarp). These features typically define a drupe, but it is generally named a drupaceous nut, or simply a nut. In areas where squirrels are present, many nuts are stored underground and are not reclaimed, and by spring many seedlings appear. The seeds contain a large embryo and little or no endosperm.

The most distinguishing feature of Fagales is the cupule (hull) subtending or surrounding the fruit. The structure is believed to be of a different origin in most of the families. For example, in Fagaceae it is derived from a highly modified and reduced branch system with its associated modified leaves or bracts, at least in the genus Quercus; and in Betulaceae the husks are thought to be made up of several modified bracts. It also has been suggested that the four-valved cupule of Nothofagus is derived from the four stipules at the base of the two bracts borne beneath the inflorescence. The interpretation is that bracts themselves are highly reduced or absent, while the stipules are greatly enlarged and modified.

The beeches are tardily deciduous trees, although some have rather thick, leathery leaves. Many have a tendency to retain their leaves, although in a dry, lifeless state, even through the winter, especially when young. In Lithocarpus and Chrysolepis, and in some species of Quercus the plants are evergreen with thick, leathery-textured, usually smooth-margined leaves. Outside the tropics and warm temperate areas, most members of the family are deciduous, and the leaves are frequently deeply lobed or at least coarsely toothed at the margins. Whereas many deciduous trees in temperate areas produce one major flush of new leaves each spring, many species of oaks and some plants in other families in temperate areas continue to produce new leaves throughout the growing season. These two features, the lack of a well-developed abscission layer in the leaf petiole and the production of leaves throughout the summer, are interpreted as indicating an origin for the family in the tropics or subtropics, where equitable conditions would allow growth to occur throughout the year. The rapid decrease in the diversity of species of Fagaceae north of about latitude 35° to 40° N lends support to this hypothesis. The special conditions in the Mediterranean area—summer dryness and winter rains—which also are found in part of western North America, give a dry-habitat character to members of the Fagales occurring there, including such features as small leathery leaves that are spiny or hairy.

Nothofagus have small coarsely toothed leaves resembling the leaves of some of the birches. In contrast to Fagaceae, Nothofagus is able to grow in cold, inhospitable climates, even adjacent to the snow line in the mountains of South America. In this respect the genus is more similar in ecological preference to Betulaceae than to Fagaceae and perhaps can be thought of as the Southern Hemisphere counterpart of the birches. This fits in with other evidence that indicates a closer kinship for Nothofagus with Betulaceae than with Fagaceae.

The inflorescences of Betulaceae comprise a central axis on which are borne a series of greatly reduced and compressed spirally arranged cymules. The hypothetical ancestral inflorescence consisted of three flowers, each on a separate stalk, with each of these joined to a main stalk, and seven leaflike bracts. The extant inflorescence in Betulaceae is believed to have been derived through the evolutionary loss of the flower stalks, peduncle, and one or more of the bracts, reduction in size of the flowers, and compression of the main axis of the inflorescence. In all genera except Betula, the cymes have been reduced to two flowers. Betula, with three-flowered cymes, retains the ancestral arrangement. All the original bracts are still present in the female flowers of Carpinus, Ostrya, and Ostryopsis; the uppermost bracts have been lost in Betula; and one bract is lost in Corylus. The tepals are still present in the flowers of Carpinus, Corylus, Ostrya, and Ostryopsis, but they have been completely lost in the course of evolution in Alnus and Betula.

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Plants: From Cute to Carnivorous

In Betula and Alnus, which have the smallest fruits in Fagales, both the female and the male flowers are borne in catkins. The catkins of the female flowers of Alnus are woody and reminiscent of the cones of some gymnosperms. The scales spread apart at maturity to release the ripe fruit. In Betula the bracts of the catkins are deciduous, and the mature catkin shatters to release the winged fruit. In the remaining genera of Betulaceae, the fruits are nuts or nutlets borne in saclike husks or attached to leaflike bracts.

The husk that surrounds the nuts of Corylus ferox produces long spines and bears a striking resemblance to the husk of the fruits of Castanea and some species of Castanopsis in Fagaceae, but in other species of Corylus the husks are more leaflike in appearance or tubular and flask-shaped. Although they are not spiny, the husks frequently bear numerous multicellular, glandular hairs, which exude a sticky substance that may deter predation of the nuts.

Juglandaceae are unusual in the order, with leaves pinnately compound, sometimes trifoliolate. Vegetative parts are covered with aromatic peltate (umbrella shaped) glands. Stems of black walnut trees attain heights of nearly 50 metres (about 165 feet). Massive trunks are also developed by pecans and some hickories. Tree stems consist almost entirely of secondary wood—i.e., wood produced by a cambial cylinder composed of cells that differentiate inwardly, to add to the wood already present. Cambium, also present in roots, is active mainly in the spring. Woods of this family are especially noted for their grain patterns and for the lustre of local bands of cells (wood rays) that radiate toward the perimeter of the trunk. Casuarinaceae are distinctive trees or shrubs adapted to arid habitats and have jointed branches with short internodes. The leaves are peculiar in structure, appearing as a whorl of reduced scalelike structures at each node. They are often confused with gymnosperms.