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(Last Modified On 5/24/2013)
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(Last Modified On 5/24/2013)
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Family
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ERYTHROXYLACEAE
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Contributor
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W. G. D'ARCy AND NOEL SCHANEN
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Description
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Trees or shrubs; twigs mostly compressed; sap sometimes colored. Leaves alternate-distichous, simple, mostly entire, pinnately veined, often deciduous, ptyxis involute; stipules often conspicuous, appearing immediately distal to the petiole, sometimes appearing without leaves (ramenta). Inflorescences sessile or subsessile fascicles subtended by bracts; pedicels articulating at the base, sub- tended by bracteoles. Flowers heterostylous, 5-merous; sepals imbricate or val- vate, persistent; petals free, alternate with the sepals, mostly ventrally append- aged; stamens 10, in 2 whorls, the outermost alternate with the petals, the filaments basally fused into a tube, the anthers 2-loculed, small; ovary superior, often truncate, 3-loculed, only one bearing a solitary (?rarely 2), pendulous, epitropous, anatropous ovule, styles 3, fused or free, the stigmas globose or tur- binate. Fruit a baccate drupe, the endocarp hard, 3-loculed but only one con- taining a shiny seed; endosperm present or not, sometimes copious. The family may be recognized by its stipulate, entire leaves and by the flowers which have free, appendaged petals and a 3-loculed ovary surrounded by the filament tube. When present, the longitudinal lines or areoles on the leaf under- sides are diagnostic in the Panamanian flora. The flowers are heterostylous; in one form the anthers are held above the free styles on equal filaments, in the other form, the anthers are held below the often connate styles on filaments of two lengths.
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Habit
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Trees or shrubs
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Note
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The Erythroxylaceae are closely related to the Linaceae, Humiriaceae and Malpighiaceae, and they have been united with these families in the past. Some genera of Linaceae, e.g. Roucheria, Hebepetalum and Pepidobotrys, are not clearly distinct from the Erythroxylaceae, having many floral characters in com- mon and having alternate-distichous leaves with involute leaf ptyxis which some- times results in lines or areoles on the developed leaves. In addition to Erythro- xylum with 200-300 species, Nectaropetalum P. Br. (6 species in Africa) and Aneulophus Benth. (2 species in Africa) are sometimes considered to be mem- bers of the Erythroxylaceae.
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Reference
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Schulz, 0. E. Erythroxylaceae. In A. Engler, "Das Pflanzenreich." 4(134). 1907. Payens, J. P. D. W. Erythroxylaceae. In C. G. G. J. Van Steenis, "Flora Ma- lesiana." 1(5): 543-552. 1958.
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