Heliotropiaceae

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Heliotropiaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants with approximately 450 species worldwide, though it is concentrated especially in the tropics and subtropics. [1]

Contents

The following are the four genera in the family:

Ixorhea is sister to Euploca and Myriopus. [2] Together they form a clade sister to Heliotropium, which comprises four major clades: Heliotropium sect. Heliothamnus I.M.Johnst., Old World Heliotropium, Heliotropium sect. Cochranea (Miers) Post & Kuntze, and the Tournefortia-clade, the latter comprising Tournefortia sect. Tournefortia and all remaining New World species of Heliotropium. [3] [4]

History

Prior to a 2016 revision, Heliotropiaceae were considered a subfamily of the Boraginaceae: Heliotropioideae. [1] Even before that, however, there was already some indication in the field that Heliotropiaceae deserved to be recognized as an independent family. Anatomically, the presence of anatropous ovules in Heliotropiaceae as well as the presence of long suspensors and endosperm haustoria in Boraginaceae drove the earliest divide between the two families in the literature. Later, molecular data collected from a variety of families in the Boraginales collectively indicated that the Hydrophyllaceae were sister to the Heliotropiaceae, something that rendered the Boraginaceae paraphyletic. [5]

Morphology

In broad terms, members of the Heliotropiaceae are quite diverse in that they can be small trees, lianas, shrubs, sub-shrubs, or even perennial or annual herbs. However they all have 5-merous, tetracyclic flowers and actinomorphic corollas. These plants are also characterized by their terminal styles and

highly modified stigmatic heads (basal stigma, infertile apex) as well as by their fruits (one or two-seeded mericarpids or drupes). [5] Their conical stigmatic heads are unique and are thus a recognizable synapomorphy for this family. Heliotropiaceae mostly have distinctly scorpioid cymose inflorescences. [1]

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<i>Heliotropium</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

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<i>Heliotropium arboreum</i> Species of plant

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Hoplestigma is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae, although this is disputed, and it has been placed in its own family Hoplestigmataceae. Its two species are native to Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Liberia in western tropical Africa.

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Heliotropioideae was a subfamily of the flowering plant family Boraginaceae, comprising roughly 450 species. A 2016 revision of the Boraginales recognises it as a distinct family, Heliotropiaceae.

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<i>Cordia lutea</i> Species of plant

Cordia lutea, known as yellow cordia or in Spanish muyuyo, is a shrubby plant in the borage family (Boraginaceae), native to the Galápagos Islands, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and the Marquesas Islands in Polynesia. Common in the arid lowlands of the Galápagos, its relatively large yellow flowers make it easy to identify.

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

Coldenia, named after C. Colden, is a monotypic genus of flowering plants traditionally included in the borage family, Boraginaceae sensu lato. It was assigned to the subfamily Ehretioideae, but molecular data revealed it to be more closely related to the genus Cordia, so that other authors placed in Cordioideae. Subsequently, it was placed in its own family, Coldeniaceae, within the Boraginales order, by the Boraginales Working Group.

Selkirkia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Boraginaceae. Three species occur on the South American mainland and one, Selkirkia berteroi, the first of the genus to be reported, is an endemic on Robinson Crusoe Island off the coast of Chile. It was previously considered a monotypic genus.

<i>Euploca</i> Genus of flowering plants in the borage family Boraginaceae

Euploca is an almost cosmopolitan genus of plants with around 100 species. It was first described by Thomas Nuttall in 1837. While part of the broadly defined Boraginaceae in the APG IV system from 2016, a revision of the order Boraginales from the same year includes Euploca in the separate family Heliotropiaceae. Its species used to be classified in the genera Hilgeria and Schleidenia and in Heliotropium sect. Orthostachys, but were found to form an independent lineage in a molecular phylogenetic analysis, more closely related to Myriopus than to Heliotropium. While many species use the C4 photosynthetic pathway, there are also C3–C4 intermediate species. Species have leaves with a C4-typical Kranz anatomy.

Euploca humilis, the dwarf tournefortia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae. It is native to Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, and most of Brazil. Originally described by Linnaeus in 1753, molecular and morphological evidence led to its transfer from Tournefortia to Euploca in 2016.

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

Huynhia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Boraginaceae, from Asia.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Luebert, Federico; Cecchi, Lorenzo; Frohlich, Michael W.; Gottschling, Marc; Guilliams, C. Matt; Hasenstab-Lehman, Kristen E.; Hilger, Hartmut H.; Miller, James S.; Mittelbach, Moritz; Nazaire, Mare; Nepi, Massimo (2016-06-24). "Familial classification of the Boraginales". Taxon. 65 (3): 502–522. doi:10.12705/653.5. hdl: 11365/993946 . ISSN   0040-0262.
  2. ↑ Weigend, Maximilian; Luebert, Federico; Gottschling, Marc; Couvreur, Thomas L.P.; Hilger, Hartmut H.; Miller, James S. (October 2014). "From capsules to nutlets-phylogenetic relationships in the Boraginales". Cladistics. 30 (5): 508–518. doi: 10.1111/cla.12061 . PMID   34794245. S2CID   11954615.
  3. ↑ Hilger, Hartmut H.; Diane, Nadja (2003-12-17). "A systematic analysis of Heliotropiaceae (Boraginales) based on trnL and ITS1 sequence data". Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie. 125 (1): 19–51. doi:10.1127/0006-8152/2003/0125-0019. ISSN   0006-8152.
  4. ↑ Luebert, Federico; Brokamp, Grischa; Wen, Jun; Weigend, Maximilian; Hilger, Hartmut H. (June 2011). "Phylogenetic relationships and morphological diversity in Neotropical Heliotropium (Heliotropiaceae)". Taxon. 60 (3): 663–680. doi:10.1002/tax.603004.
  5. 1 2 Diane, N.; Forther, H.; Hilger, H. H. (2002-02-01). "A systematic analysis of Heliotropium, Tournefortia, and allied taxa of the Heliotropiaceae (Boraginales) based on ITS1 sequences and morphological data". American Journal of Botany. 89 (2): 287–295. doi:10.3732/ajb.89.2.287. ISSN   0002-9122. PMID   21669738.
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