Altingiaceae | |
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Liquidambar styraciflua | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Saxifragales |
Family: | Altingiaceae Lindl. |
Genera | |
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The range of Altingiaceae. |
Altingiaceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales, [1] consisting of wind-pollinated trees that produce hard, woody fruits containing numerous seeds. The fruits have been studied in considerable detail. [2] [3] They naturally occur in Central America, Mexico, eastern North America, the eastern Mediterranean, China, and tropical Asia. [4] They are often cultivated as ornamentals and many produce valuable wood. [5]
Altingiaceae now consists of the single genus Liquidambar with 15 known species. [6] Previously, the genera Altingia and Semiliquidambar were also recognised, but these represent a rapid radiation and have been difficult to separate reliably. Semiliquidambar has recently been shown to be composed of hybrids of species of Altingia and Liquidambar. This result had been expected for some time. [5] Altingia and Liquidambar are known to be paraphyletic and a revision of the family has been prepared. [4] [7] Many of the species are closely related, and distinctions between them are likely to be artificial. [4]
The name "Altingiaceae" has a long and complex taxonomic history. Some attribute the name to John Lindley, who published it in 1846. Others say that the authority for the name is Paul F. Horaninov, who described the group in 1841. [8] In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the family Altingiaceae was not generally accepted. Most authors placed these genera in Hamamelidaceae and this treatment has been followed in some recent works as well. [9] In the twenty-first century, however, molecular phylogenetic studies have shown that including Altingiaceae in Hamamelidaceae makes Hamamelidaceae paraphyletic. The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group recognizes four families in the lineage including Altingiaceae. Cercidiphyllaceae and Daphniphyllaceae are sister. This clade is sister to Hamamelidaceae and these three families are sister to Altingiaceae. The clade is sister to Paeoniaceae [10]
The family is named for the genus Altingia, now a synonym of Liquidambar . This genus was named in honor of Willem Arnold Alting (1724–1800), the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies when Noronha visited Java. [11]
Altingiaceae have an extensive fossil record. [12] [13] [14] For most of the Paleogene and Neogene, they were more widely distributed than they are today. The stem group Altingiaceae diverged from the clade [Hamamelidaceae + (Cercidiphyllaceae + Daphniphyllaceae)] in the Turonian stage of the Cretaceous Period, about 90 mya (million years ago). The crown group Altingiaceae is much more recent, originating in the Eocene, about 40 Mya. [4]
Rosales is an order of flowering plants. It is sister to a clade consisting of Fagales and Cucurbitales. It contains about 7,700 species, distributed into about 260 genera. Rosales comprise nine families, the type family being the rose family, Rosaceae. The largest of these families are Rosaceae (90/2500) and Urticaceae (54/2600). The order Rosales is divided into three clades that have never been assigned a taxonomic rank. The basal clade consists of the family Rosaceae; another clade consists of four families, including Rhamnaceae; and the third clade consists of the four urticalean families.
The Saxifragales (saxifrages) are an order of flowering plants (Angiosperms). They are an extremely diverse group of plants which include trees, shrubs, perennial herbs, succulent and aquatic plants. The degree of diversity in terms of vegetative and floral features makes it difficult to define common features that unify the order.
The Vitaceae are a family of flowering plants, with 14 genera and around 910 known species, including common plants such as grapevines and Virginia creeper. The family name is derived from the genus Vitis.
Hamamelidales is an order of flowering plants formerly accepted in a number of systems of plant taxonomy, including the Cronquist system published in 1968 and 1988. The order is not currently accepted in the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group III system of plant taxonomy, the most widely accepted system as molecular systematic studies have suggested that these families are not closely related to each other. The APG II system (2003) assigns them to several different orders: Hamamelidaceae and Cercidiphyllaceae to Saxifragales, Eupteleaceae to Ranunculales, Platanaceae to Proteales, and Myrothamnaceae to Gunnerales. Additional studies of the chloroplast genome have since confirmed that the families moved into the Saxigragales are closely related.
Hamamelidaceae, commonly referred to as the witch-hazel family, is a family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales. The clade consists of shrubs and small trees positioned within the woody clade of the core Saxifragales. An earlier system, the Cronquist system, recognized Hamamelidaceae in the Hamamelidales order.
Phrymaceae, also known as the lopseed family, is a small family of flowering plants in the order Lamiales. It has a nearly cosmopolitan distribution, but is concentrated in two centers of diversity, one in Australia, the other in western North America. Members of this family occur in diverse habitats, including deserts, river banks and mountains.
Hamamelididae is an obsolete botanical name at the rank of subclass. Because some hamamelidid members bear aments, this subclass has been formerly known as Amentiferae. Based on molecular phylogeny works, Hamamelididae appears to be a polyphyletic group.
The rosids are members of a large clade of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms.
Peridiscaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Saxifragales. Four genera comprise this family: Medusandra, Soyauxia, Peridiscus, and Whittonia., with a total of 12 known species. It has a disjunct distribution, with Peridiscus occurring in Venezuela and northern Brazil, Whittonia in Guyana, Medusandra in Cameroon, and Soyauxia in tropical West Africa. Whittonia is possibly extinct, being known from only one specimen collected below Kaieteur Falls in Guyana. In 2006, archeologists attempted to rediscover it, however, it proved unsuccessful.
The APG system of plant classification is the first version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy. Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it was replaced by the improved APG II in 2003, APG III system in 2009 and APG IV system in 2016.
The Kubitzki system is a system of plant taxonomy devised by Klaus Kubitzki, and is the product of an ongoing survey of vascular plants, entitled The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, and extending to 15 volumes in 2018. The survey, in the form of an encyclopedia, is important as a comprehensive, multivolume treatment of the vascular plants, with keys to and descriptions of all families and genera, mostly by specialists in those groups. The Kubitzki system served as the basis for classification in Mabberley's Plant-Book, a dictionary of the vascular plants. Mabberley states, in his Introduction on page xi of the 2008 edition, that the Kubitzki system "has remained the standard to which other literature is compared".
Liquidambar chingii is a species of plant in the Altingiaceae family. It is native to Vietnam and China. It is threatened by habitat loss.
Lepidobotryaceae is a family of plants in the order Celastrales. It contains only two species: Lepidobotrys staudtii and Ruptiliocarpon caracolito.
Exbucklandia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Hamamelidaceae. They are medium to large trees whose natural range is from eastern India through southern China and southward through the Malay Peninsula. In India and China, they are widely cultivated for their impressive foliage and valuable lumber. A few have been grown in the southernmost parts of the United States. To speakers of English, Exbucklandia is generally known as the Pipli tree, from the Bengali name for the species Exbucklandia populnea.
Tetracarpaea is the only genus in the flowering plant family Tetracarpaeaceae. Some taxonomists place it in the family Haloragaceae sensu lato, expanding that family from its traditional circumscription to include Penthorum and Tetracarpaea, and sometimes Aphanopetalum as well.
Liquidambar changii is an extinct species of sweetgum in the Altingiaceae genus Liquidambar. Liquidambar changii is known from Middle Miocene fossils found in Central Washington.
Shirleya is an extinct genus in the crape myrtle family, Lythraceae, which contains a single species, Shirleya grahamae. The genus and species are known from Middle Miocene fossils found in Central Washington.
Liquidambar acalycina, Chang’s sweet gum, is a species of flowering plant in the family Altingiaceae, native to southern China. Growing to 30–50 ft (9.1–15.2 m) tall and 20–30 ft (6.1–9.1 m) broad. It is a medium-sized deciduous tree with three-lobed maple-like leaves that turn red in autumn before falling. It is monoecious, meaning both male and female flowers appear on the same plant. The flowers are insignificant, yellow/green in colour, and are followed by small gum-balls that persist on the tree until winter. The wood exudes a sweet-smelling resin when pierced, giving the tree its common name.
Liquidambar cambodiana, commonly known as sdey, is a tree in the Altingiaceae family endemic to south west Cambodia.