The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules and sympetalous actinomorphic flowers. The family contains about 13,500 species in about 620 genera, which makes it the fourth-largest angiosperm family. Rubiaceae has a cosmopolitan distribution; however, the largest species diversity is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics. Economically important species include Coffea, the source of coffee, Cinchona, the source of the antimalarial alkaloid quinine, some dye plants, and ornamental cultivars.
Coccoloba diversifolia, known as pigeonplum or tietongue, is a species of the genus Coccoloba native to coastal areas of the Caribbean, Central America, southern Mexico, southern Florida and the Bahamas.
Oldenlandia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is pantropical in distribution and has about 240 species. The type species for the genus is Oldenlandia corymbosa.
Banksia spinulosa var. collina is a shrub that grows along the east coast of Australia, in Queensland and New South Wales. Commonly known as Hill Banksia or Golden Candlesticks, it is a taxonomic variety of B. spinulosa. It is a popular garden plant widely sold in nurseries.
Lasianthus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are tropical subshrubs, shrubs, or rarely, small trees. They inhabit the understory of primary forests. None of them are known to have any use.
Banksia spinulosa var. cunninghamii, sometimes given species rank as Banksia cunninghamii, is a shrub that grows along the east coast of Australia, in Victoria and New South Wales. It is a fast-growing non-lignotuberous shrub or small tree infrequently cultivated.
Atractocarpus fitzalanii, the brown gardenia or yellow mangosteen, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae found in tropical Queensland in Australia. The beautifully scented flowers and lush growth has seen this plant enter cultivation in subtropical gardens in Eastern Australia.
Distichlis is a genus of American and Australian plants in the grass family.
Chiococca is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It currently holds 23 species that are native to Florida, Texas, Mexico, Central America, much of South America, the West Indies, and the Galápagos.
Kadua is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It comprises 29 species, all restricted to Polynesia. Twenty-two of these are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. Some of the species are common at high elevation. Others are single-island endemics or very rare, and a few are probably extinct. Kadua affinis is widely distributed in Hawaii and is polymorphic. The type species for the genus is Kadua acuminata.
Ernodea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. All species are small shrubs endemic to the Caribbean region, with most species restricted to the Bahamian Archipelago.
Alan W. Meerow is an American botanist, born in New York City in 1952. He specializes in the taxonomy of the family Amaryllidaceae and the horticulture of palms and tropical ornamental plants. He also works on the population genetics and molecular systematics of cycads and palms.
Chiococceae is a tribe of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae and contains about 233 species in 27 genera. Most representatives occur from southern Florida to tropical and subtropical America, except for the genera Badusa and Bikkia, which are found from the Philippines to the West Pacific, and Morierina and Thiollierea, which are native to New Caledonia.
Ixoroideae is a subfamily of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae and contains about 4000 species in 27 tribes.
Spermacoceae is a tribe of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae and contains about 1346 species in 57 genera. Its representatives are found in the tropics and subtropics.
Coffeeae is a tribe of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae and contains about 303 species in 11 genera. Its representatives are found in tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar, the western Indian Ocean, tropical and subtropical Asia, and Queensland.
Rodney John Francis Henderson is an Australian botanist, specialising in taxonomy who worked for more than 48 years for the Queensland Public Service, 41 of those years at the Queensland Herbarium until he retired in 2002. The families he studied included the Solanaceae, Liliaceae, Euphorbiaceae and Rubiaceae. There are about 3,500 labelled specimens in Australian herbaria collected by Henderson, sometimes with other botanists. He was often sought after as an expert in the application of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature because of his knowledge of the code and of botanical Latin and Greek.
Birgitta Bremer, Swedish botanist and academic, is professor at Stockholm University, and director of the Bergius Botanic Garden.
Marco Duretto is a manager and senior research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney in Australia.
Brian Morey Boom is an American botanist who specializes in the flora of the Guianas and the Caribbean, the family Rubiaceae, ethnobotany, and economic botany.
