Illiciaceae A.C.Sm. [1] was a family of flowering plants recognized in a number of systems of plant taxonomy. The Illiciaceae is not recognized as a distinct family by the APG III system of plant taxonomy, the most well accepted system in use today. [1]
The APG II system treated Illiciaceae as a family that may either be treated as part of another family, the Schisandraceae or allows for the optional segregation of the Illiciaceae from the Schisandraceae. The Illiciaceae as an optional segregate family then has the traditional circumscription of other taxonomic systems, consisting of a single genus, Illicium . The updated APG III system of 2009 does not recognize this family and includes Illicium in the Schisandraceae. [1]
The family consists of shrubs or small trees usually with volatile aromatic compounds. The leaves are evergreen, simple, alternate, spiral (sometimes crowded towards the tips of the twigs), leathery, petiolate, pinnately veined, non-sheathing, gland-dotted or not gland-dotted; also are aromatic, or without marked odour. The lamina is entire.
The flowers are hermaphrodite, and usually showy, ranging in size from small to large, and composed of numerous distinct parts that change grade slightly as they spiral around the receptacle. The parts begin with a perianth of whorled tepals, with the outer whorls more sepaloid, graduating to more petaloid inner tepals. The stamens are also numerous and in a whorl. The carpels are arranged in a whorl, are separate, and number from 5 to numerous carpels in each whorl, each carpel containing a single ovule. [2]
The stem presents nodes unilacunar (with one trace), with internal phloem absent, secondary thickening developing from a conventional cambial ring, xylem with tracheids; The sieve-tube plastids are S-type. [3]
The fruit is non-fleshy; the fruiting carpel is dehiscent, with a follicle (the cycle of follicles often spreading radially in a stellate pattern) and presents only one seed. The seeds are copiously endospermic and oily. The embryo is well differentiated (very small), achlorophyllous. The germination is phanerocotylar.
Leaves bear essential oils. Proanthocyanidins present (cyanidin and delphinidin). Flavonols present (kaempferol and quercetin). The fruits produce 2.5 – 5% of essential oil (Anethole, 80-90%, chavicol, safrol, shikimic acid); also contents veranisatins A, B and C and merrilactons.
The single genus, Illicium, has about 40 species native to sub-tropical and tropical Southeast Asia and the southeastern United States, the Caribbean, and parts of Mexico. [2]
Species
For further details of placement in various systems see the entry for family Schisandraceae.
The Magnoliales are an order of flowering plants.
The Magnoliaceae are a flowering plant family, the magnolia family, in the order Magnoliales. It consists of two genera: Magnolia and Liriodendron.
Austrobaileyales is an order of flowering plants consisting of about 100 species of woody plants growing as trees, shrubs and lianas. The best-known species is Illicium verum, commonly known as star anise. The order belongs to the group of basal angiosperms, the ANA grade, which diverged earlier from the remaining flowering plants. Austrobaileyales is sister to all remaining extant angiosperms outside the ANA grade.
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.
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.
Amborella is a monotypic genus of understory shrubs or small trees endemic to the main island, Grande Terre, of New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The genus is the only member of the family Amborellaceae and the order Amborellales and contains a single species, Amborella trichopoda. Amborella is of great interest to plant systematists because molecular phylogenetic analyses consistently place it as the sister group to all other flowering plants.
The Canellaceae are a family of flowering plants in the order Canellales. The order includes only one other family, the Winteraceae. Canellaceae is native to the Afrotropical and Neotropical realms. They are small to medium trees, rarely shrubs, evergreen and aromatic. The flowers and fruit are often red.
Petrosaviaceae is a family of flowering plants belonging to a monotypic order, Petrosaviales. Petrosaviales are monocots, and are grouped within the lilioid monocots. Petrosaviales is a very small order composed of one family, two genera and four species accepted in 2016. Some species are photosynthetic (Japonolirion) and others are rare, leafless, chlorophyllous, mycoheterotrophic plants (Petrosavia). The family is found in low-light montane rainforests in Japan, China, Southeast Asia and Borneo. They are characterised by having bracteate racemes, pedicellate flowers, six persistent tepals, septal nectaries, three almost-distinct carpels, simultaneous microsporogenesis, monosulcate pollen, and follicular fruit.
The Calycanthaceae are a small family of flowering plants in the order Laurales. The family contains three genera and only 10 known species, restricted to warm temperate and tropical regions:
Illicium is a genus of flowering plants treated as part of the family Schisandraceae, or alternately as the sole genus of the Illiciaceae. It has a disjunct distribution, with most species native to eastern Asia and several in parts of North America, including the southeastern United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. General common names include star anise and anisetree. The genus name comes from the Latin illicere.
Schisandraceae is a family of flowering plants with 3 known genera and a total of 92 known species. Such a family has been recognized by most taxonomists, at least for the past several decades. Before that, the plants concerned were assigned to family Magnoliaceae and Illiciaceae.
The Hernandiaceae are a family of flowering plants (angiosperms) in the order Laurales. Consisting of five genera with about 58 known species, they are distributed over the world's tropical areas, some of them widely distributed in coastal areas, but they occur from sea level to over 2000 m.
Sabiaceae is a family of flowering plants that were placed in the order Proteales according to the APG IV system. It comprises three genera, Meliosma, Ophiocaryon and Sabia, with 66 known species, native to tropical to warm temperate regions of southern Asia and the Americas. The family has also been called Meliosmaceae Endl., 1841, nom. rej.
Juncaginaceae is a family of flowering plants, recognized by most taxonomists for the past few decades. It is also known as the arrowgrass family. It includes 3 genera with a total of 34 known species.
Trochodendraceae is the only family of flowering plants in the order Trochodendrales. It comprises two extant genera, each with a single species along with up to five additional extinct genera and a number of extinct species. The living species are native to south east Asia. The two living species both have secondary xylem without vessel elements, which is quite rare in angiosperms. As the vessel-free wood suggests primitiveness, these two species have attracted much taxonomic attention.
Eupomatia is a genus of three flowering shrub species of the Australian continent, constituting the only genus in the ancient family Eupomatiaceae. The Eupomatiaceae have been recognised by most taxonomists and classified in the plant order Magnoliales. The three species of shrubs or small trees grow naturally in the rainforests and humid eucalypt forests of eastern Australia and New Guinea. The type species Eupomatia laurina was described in 1814 by Robert Brown.
Limnocharitaceae was a family of flowering plants in the monocot order Alismatales. In the APG IV system, it is included in the family Alismataceae. It is commonly known as the water poppy family. Species that have been placed in this taxon are small, perennial, aquatic herbs, native to the tropics, but adventive or naturalized in the subtropics as a result of cultivation.
The Cleomaceae are a small family of flowering plants in the order Brassicales, comprising about 300 species in 10 genera, or about 150 species in 17 genera. These genera were previously included in the family Capparaceae, but were raised to a distinct family when DNA evidence suggested the genera included in it are more closely related to the Brassicaceae than they are to the Capparaceae. The APG II system allows for Cleomaceae to be included in Brassicaceae. Cleomaceae includes C3, C3–C4, and C4 photosynthesis species.
Illicium tenuifolium is a species of flowering plant in the family Schisandraceae. It is a tree native to Indo-China and Peninsular Malaysia. It grows in tropical forests, including cloud forests.
Illicium ternstroemioides is a species of tree in the family Schisandraceae, or alternately, the Illiciaceae. It is native to northern Vietnam and Hainan Island in China.