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(Last Modified On 3/14/2013)
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(Last Modified On 3/14/2013)
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Family
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THEACEAE
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Contributor
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ANDRE ROBYNS
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Description
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Shrubs or small to large trees. Leaves usually alternate, estipulate, simple, often ? coriaceous, the margins entire to serrate, persistent or not. Flowers axil- lary, solitary or fasciculate, rarely in axillary or terminal racemes, usually X, actinomorphic, usually 2-bracteolate; sepals 4-7, free or mostly ? connate at the base, imbricate, often persistent; petals 5, rarely 4-many, imbricate, alterni- or sometimes episepalous, free or connate into a short ring at the base; stamens 5 or 10 or mostly numerous, uni- or many-seriate, free or often united basally, often adnate to the base of the petals, the anthers basifixed or versatile, 2-thecate, longitudinally dehiscent; pollen grains with the exine nearly smooth to finely reticulate; ovary superior, rarely half-inferior or inferior, syncarpous, (1-)2-10- celled, mostly 3- or 5-celled; the ovules (1-)2-oo per cell, axile, pendulous or erect; styles isomerous with the cells of the ovary, distinct or united into one, rarely absent. Fruits capsular, loculicidally dehiscent, with the central columella per- sistent, and with a ligneous or, less frequently, coriaceous pericarp (Camellioideae), or baccate or rarely pomelike, with the pericarp fleshy, coriaceous, or dry (Tern- stroemioideae); seeds 1-oo, small to fairly large, alate or not; endosperm copious or absent; embryo slender to broad, straight or curved or hippocrepiform.
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Habit
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Shrubs trees
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Distribution
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A family of about 30 genera and over 350 species distributed mainly in tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, but not well represented in Africa, and with a few genera and species extending into temperate regions; six genera and seven species, at present, reported from Panama.
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Note
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Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze, the tea plant, native to China and India, is the most important economic plant of the family; the genus Camellia L. and some other genera contribute significant ornamentals from warm climates.
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Reference
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Keng, H. Comparative morphological studies in Theaceae. Univ. Calif. Publ. Bot. 33: 269-384, 7 pl., 30 figs., 1962. Melchior, H. Theaceae in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam. ed. 2, 21: 109- 154, fig. 59-67, 1925.
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Key
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a. Anthers versatile; fruit capsular .................... 1. Laplacea aa. Anthers basifixed; fruit indehiscent. b. Stamens 5; sepals caducous; flowers large; mangroves ............ 2. Pelliciera bb. Stamens more than 5; sepals persistent; flowers small. c. Leaves densely appressed-sericeous beneath; anthers glabrous .... 3. Freziera cc. Leaves glabrous or glabrate, .at least in age. d. Ovary inferior; anthers glabrous .......................... 4. Symplococarpon dd. Ovary superior. e. Anthers setose; petals alternisepalous ..................... 5. Cleyera ee. Anthers glabrous; petals episepalous ........................ 6. Ternstroemia
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