Overview

This lesson covers families of plants that have four petals. Most plant families have flowers with five or three petals. There are fewer families with four petals. The families you will learn to recognize in this class are:

The Papaveraceae (the poppy family)

The Brassicaceae (the mustard family)

The Onagraceae (the evening primrose family)

These can be distinguished from each other based on the position of the ovary and the number of stamens.

This lesson will also cover the main subfamily (the Papilionoideae) of the Fabaceae (the legumes, or pea/bean family). These plants have five petals, but two are fused together.