Bruniaceae

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Bruniaceae
Berzelia lanuginosa 2.jpg
Berzelia lanuginosa
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Bruniales
Family: Bruniaceae
R.Br. ex DC. [1]
Genera

See text

Bruniaceae is a family of shrubs native to the cape region of South Africa. They are mostly restricted to the Cape Province, but a small number of species occur in KwaZulu-Natal. [2]

Contents

Description

Species belonging to the Bruniaceae are heath-like shrubs. They have small, hard, scaly leaves that are alternate but regularly set and overlapping. A distinct character is the minute black tip of the leaves when these are young. The inflorescence is a dense spike or spherical flowerhead with up to 400 flowers at the end of the stems. Individual flowers are tube-shaped and hermaphrodite, there are five sepals which may be free or connected at their rim, while the ovary sits under the other parts of the flower. The fruit is dry when ripe, opens with two or four valves and contains fleshy seeds. [3]

Taxonomy

In the APG II taxonomy they are placed in the order Lamiales, [4] but a 2008 study suggested that they are sister to the Columelliaceae, [5] and the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website proposes incorporating this finding by placing both families in order Bruniales. [2]

Genera

There are twelve genera, totalling 77 species: [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurales</span> Order of flowering plants

The Laurales are an order of flowering plants. They are magnoliids, related to the Magnoliales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnoliales</span> Basal order of flowering plants

The Magnoliales are an order of flowering plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nepenthales</span> Order of carnivorous plants

Nepenthales is an order of carnivorous flowering plants in the Cronquist system of plant classification.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illiciales</span> Order of flowering plants

Illiciales is an order of flowering plants that is not recognized by the current most widely used system of plant classification, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group's APG III system. The order was comprised differently in various systems of plant taxonomy, but is composed of 2-4 families of shrubs, trees, and lianas native to Australasia, south eastern Asia, and the southeastern United States. The families all contain species with essential oils, and flowers with a perianth with bracts, sepals, and petals incompletely distinguished from each other and not arranged in definite whorls. The families of the order had been variably placed in other orders in different taxonomies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquifoliales</span> Order of flowering plants

The Aquifoliales are an order of flowering plants, including the Aquifoliaceae (holly) family, and also the Helwingiaceae and the Phyllonomaceae. In 2001, the families Stemonuraceae and Cardiopteridaceae were added to this order. This circumscription of Aquifoliales was recognized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group when they published the APG II system in 2003. In the Cronquist system, there is no Aquifoliales order: the Aquifoliaceae are placed within the order Celastrales and the others are in other families.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zygophyllales</span> Order of dicotyledonous plants

The Zygophyllales are an order of dicotyledonous plants, comprising the following two families:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buxales</span> Order of eudicot flowering plants

The Buxales are a small order of eudicot flowering plants, recognized by the APG IV system of 2016. The order includes the family Buxaceae; the families Didymelaceae and Haptanthaceae may also be recognized or may be included in the Buxaceae. Many members of the order are evergreen shrubs or trees, although some are herbaceous perennials. They have separate "male" (staminate) and "female" (carpellate) flowers, mostly on the same plant. Some species are of economic importance either for the wood they produce or as ornamental plants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saururaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Saururaceae is a plant family comprising four genera and seven species of herbaceous flowering plants native to eastern and southern Asia and North America. The family has been recognised by most taxonomists, and is sometimes known as the "lizard's-tail family". The APG IV system assigned it to the order Piperales in the clade magnoliids.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asterids</span> Clade of eudicot angiosperms

In the APG IV system (2016) for the classification of flowering plants, the name asterids denotes a clade. Asterids is the largest group of flowering plants, with more than 80,000 species, about a third of the total flowering plant species. Well-known plants in this clade include the common daisy, forget-me-nots, nightshades, the common sunflower, petunias, yacon, morning glory, lettuce, sweet potato, coffee, lavender, lilac, olive, jasmine, honeysuckle, ash tree, teak, snapdragon, sesame, psyllium, garden sage, table herbs such as mint, basil, and rosemary, and rainforest trees such as Brazil nut.

<i>Myrothamnus</i> Genus of shrubs

Myrothamnus is a genus of flowering plants, consisting of two species of small xerophytic shrubs, in the southern parts of tropical Africa and in Madagascar. Myrothamnus is recognized as the only genus in the family Myrothamnaceae.

The APG II system of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in April 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. It was a revision of the first APG system, published in 1998, and was superseded in 2009 by a further revision, the APG III system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commelinids</span> Clade of monocot flowering plants

In plant taxonomy, commelinids is a clade of flowering plants within the monocots, distinguished by having cell walls containing ferulic acid.

<i>Melanophylla</i> Genus of flowering plants

Melanophylla is a genus of flowering plants endemic to Madagascar. The genus contains seven species of small trees and shrubs.

Octoknemaceae is a monotypic family of flowering plants endemic to continental Africa. The APG III system of 2009 and the APG II system of 2003, do not recognize this family. The family is recognized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, based on work since the publication of the APG III system.

<i>Sphenostemon</i> Genus of small evergreen trees and shrubs

Sphenostemon is the genus of small evergreen trees or shrubs native to New Guinea, Queensland (Australia) and New Caledonia. They have opposite or spiral leaves, and at most small stipules. The small flowers, borne in terminal inflorescences, have free sepals and petals. The anthers have thick filaments. The fruit, a berry, is fleshy and contains two seeds. The genus is described as "particularly poorly known".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columelliaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Columelliaceae is a family of trees and shrubs native to the Andes of South America.

Tribeles australis, the sole species in the genus Tribeles, is a prostrate shrub native to Chile and Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paracryphiaceae</span> Family of shrubs

The Paracryphiaceae are a family of woody shrubs and trees native to Australia, southeast Asia, and New Caledonia. In the APG III system of 2009, the family is placed in its own order, Paracryphiales, in the campanulid clade of the asterids. In the earlier APG II system, the family was unplaced as to order and included only Paracryphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Torricelliaceae</span> Family of trees

The Torricelliaceae are a family of trees native to Madagascar and southwest Asia. It contains three genera, Aralidium, Melanophylla and Torricellia. Under the APG II system, each of these genera was placed in its own family, but with the proviso that "Some of the families are monogeneric and could possibly be merged when well-supported sister-group relationships have been established." Such a relationship was established for these three genera in 2004. In the APG III system, these three genera constitute the family Torricelliaceae.

PtaeroxylaceaeJuss. are a small family of Southern African indigenous trees and woody lianes, most of them from Madagascar, comprising only two genera. Such a family was not recognized by the APG II system of classification (2003), which noted that it was a synonym of Rutaceae. The APG III system of 2009, an updated version of the last system, did not mention the family. All species within this family are included within Rutaceae.

References

  1. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1046/j.1095-8339.2003.t01-1-00158.x.
  2. 1 2 "Asterales".
  3. M. Koekemoer, H.M. Steyn & S.P. Bester. "Bruniaceae". Guide to Plant Families of southern Africa. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  4. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2003). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 141 (4): 399–436. doi:10.1046/j.1095-8339.2003.t01-1-00158.x.
  5. Winkworth, Richard C.; Lundberg, Johannes; Donoghue, Michael J. (2008). "Toward a resolution of Campanulid phylogeny, with special reference to the placement of Dipsacales". Taxon. 57 (1): 53–65.
  6. "Brunia noduliflora". www.plantzafrica.com. Retrieved 26 March 2021.