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Published In: Flora of the southern United States 427–428. 1860. (Fl. South. U.S.) Name publication detailView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 9/22/2017)
Acceptance : Accepted
 

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2. Leitneria Chapm. (corkwood) Contributed by Alan Whittemore

One species (but see the discussion below), southeastern United States.

As noted above in the discussion of the family, Leitneria was treated traditionally as a monospecific family of uncertain taxonomic affinity (Cronquist, 1981, 1991), the only angiosperm family entirely endemic to the United States. This was in large part because the highly reduced flowers of L. floridana offer few clues as to relationships with other families. It was initially surprising when molecular data suggested that Leitneria was, in fact, a highly modified member of the Simaroubaceae in which floral reduction and condensation of inflorescences correlated with a shift from insect pollination to wind pollination. Also, most Simaroubaceae are aromatic, at least when tissue is crushed or bruised, but not Leitneria. Features supporting the genetic data turn out to be mostly nonmorphological, for example that Leitneria produces secretory canals. Other evidence supporting a relationship between Leitneria and the Simaroubaceae comes from serological studies of pollen proteins (this involves injecting protein samples into laboratory animals to produce antisera, which are then isolated and tested for their relative reactivity to protein samples from other plant species) by Petersen and Fairbrothers (1983), as well as comparative embryological research (Tobe, 2011).

 
 
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