Illicium

Last updated

Illicium
Illicium verum in HDR.jpg
Fruits of Illicium verum
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Order: Austrobaileyales
Family: Schisandraceae
Genus: Illicium
L. [1]
Type species
Illicium anisatum
Synonyms [1]
  • Badianifera L. ex Kuntze
  • Cymbostemon Spach
Illicium floridanum Illicium floridanum 1 (scott.zona).jpg
Illicium floridanum
Illicium henryi Illicium henryi (1).jpg
Illicium henryi
Illicium anisatum in Kohler's Medicinal Plants Illicium anisatum - Kohler-s Medizinal-Pflanzen-075.jpg
Illicium anisatum in Köhler's Medicinal Plants

Illicium is a genus of flowering plants treated as part of the family Schisandraceae, [2] or alternately as the sole genus of the Illiciaceae. [3] 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. [4] General common names include star anise [5] and anisetree. [2] The genus name comes from the Latin illicere ("to allure"). [5]

Contents

Description

Illicium species are evergreen shrubs and small trees. The leaves are alternately arranged and borne on petioles. The blades are glandular and fragrant. The flowers are solitary. They have few to many tepals in two or three rows, the inner ones like petals and the outer ones often smaller and more like bracts. A few to many stamens and pistils are at the center. The fruit is an aggregate of follicles arranged in a star-shaped whorl. One seed is in each follicle, released when the follicle dehisces. The seed has a thick, oily endosperm. [6]

Biology

These are plants of moist understory, adapted to shady habitat, and some species are so sensitive to light that too much sunlight causes them significant stress, manifesting in chlorosis and necrosis of the leaves. [7]

Uses

Several species are cultivated as ornamental plants for their flowers, foliage, and fragrance, leading to the development of several cultivars. [8] Many taxa can only be grown in low-light situations. [7]

The essential oils of several species are used as flavorings and carminatives; however, the oils of I. anisatum and I. floridanum are toxic. I. verum, the common star anise, is used to flavor food and liquor. Its fruit is a traditional Chinese medicine called bājiǎo huíxiāng (八角茴香), which is used to treat abdominal pain and vomiting. [6]

Diversity

Illicium is a notably difficult genus to taxonomically classify. Many of the currently recognized species lack distinguishing characters, and treatments tend to list many synonyms. Additionally, herbarium material is often poorly preserved or scarce. [9]

As of August 2024, Plants of the World Online accepted these species: [1]

Related Research Articles

<i>Illicium verum</i> Star anise, a medium-sized evergreen tree native to northeast Vietnam and southeast China

Illicium verum is a medium-sized evergreen tree native to northeast Vietnam and South China. It is a spice that closely resembles anise in flavor and is obtained from the star-shaped pericarps of the fruit of I. verum which are harvested just before ripening. Star anise oil is a highly fragrant oil used in cooking, perfumery, soaps, toothpastes, mouthwashes, and skin creams. Until 2012, when they switched to using genetically modified E. coli, Roche Pharmaceuticals used up to 90% of the world's annual star anise crop to produce oseltamivir (Tamiflu) via shikimic acid.

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

Antidesma is a genus of tropical plant in the family Phyllanthaceae formally described by Linnaeus in 1753. It is native to tropical Africa, S + E + SE Asia, Australia, and various oceanic islands. The greatest diversity occurs in Southeast Asia.

<i>Arisaema</i> Genus of plants

Arisaema is a large and diverse genus of the flowering plant family Araceae.

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

Gaultheria is a genus of about 283 species of shrubs in the family Ericaceae. The name commemorates Jean François Gaultier of Quebec, an honour bestowed by the Scandinavian Pehr Kalm in 1748 and taken up by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum. These plants are native to Asia, Australasia and North and South America. In the past, the Southern Hemisphere species were often treated as the separate genus Pernettya, but no consistent reliable morphological or genetic differences support recognition of two genera, and they are now united in the single genus Gaultheria.

<i>Tainia</i> Genus of orchids

Tainia, commonly known as ribbon orchids or 带唇兰属 is a genus of about thirty species of evergreen, terrestrial orchids in the distributed from India, China, Japan, Southeast Asia to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Queensland.

<i>Illicium anisatum</i> Species of plant

Illicium anisatum, with common names Japanese star anise, Aniseed tree, and sacred Anise tree, known in Japanese as shikimi, is an evergreen shrub or small tree closely related to the Chinese star anise. Since it is highly toxic, the fruit is not edible; instead, the dried and powdered leaves are burned as incense in Japan. Its branches and evergreen leaves are considered highly sacred by Japanese Buddhists due to insects' aversion to them and their ability to remain fresh after pruning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illiciaceae</span> Extinct family of flowering plants

Illiciaceae A.C.Sm. 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.

<i>Phoebe</i> (plant) Genus of flowering plants

Phoebe is a genus of evergreen trees and shrubs belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae. There are 75 accepted species in the genus, distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia and New Guinea. 35 species occur in China, of which 27 are endemic. The first description of the genus was of the type species P. lanceolata made in 1836 by Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck in Systema Laurinarum, p. 98.

<i>Disporum</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Colchicaceae, in monocot order Liliales

Disporum is a genus of about 20 species of perennial flowering plants, found in Asia from northern India to Japan, south to Indonesia and north into the Russian Far East.

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

Anodendron is a genus of plant in the family Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1844. It is native to most of tropical Asia: China, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and some islands of the western Pacific.

<i>Illicium floridanum</i> Species of plant

Illicium floridanum is an evergreen shrub native to the Gulf Coast area of the Southern United States, from Florida to Louisiana.

<i>Illicium parviflorum</i> Species of flowering plant

Illicium parviflorum, commonly known as yellow anisetree, yellow-anise, swamp star-anise, and small anise tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Schisandraceae, or alternately, the Illiciaceae. It is native to Florida in the United States. It historically occurred in Georgia as well, but it has been extirpated from the state.

<i>Pholidota</i> (plant) Genus of orchids

Pholidota, commonly known as rattlesnake orchids, is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. Plants in this genus are clump-forming epiphytes or lithophytes with pseudobulbs, each with a single large leaf and a large number of small, whitish flowers arranged in two ranks along a thin, wiry flowering stem that emerges from the top of the pseudobulb. There are about thirty five species native to areas from tropical and subtropical Asia to the southwestern Pacific.

<i>Eremochloa</i> Genus of grasses

Eremochloa is a genus of Asian and Australian plants in the grass family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merrilactone A</span> Chemical compound

Merrilactone A is one of the four sesquiterpenes that were newly discovered from the fruit of Illicium merrillianum in 2000. Members of the genus Illicium include Chinese star anise, widely used as a spice for flavouring food and beverages, and also poisonous plants such as Japanese star anise. Chemical studies of Illicium have developed rapidly over the last 20 years, and merrilactone A has been shown to have neurotrophic activity in fetal rat cortical neuron cultures. This has led researchers to believe that Merrilactone A may hold therapeutic potential in the treatment of neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease.

<i>Urceola</i> (plant) Genus of plants

Urceola is a plant genus in the family Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1798. It is native to China, the Himalayas, Southeast Asia, and New Guinea.

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

Callicarpa (beautyberry) is a genus of shrubs and small trees in the family Lamiaceae. They are native to east and southeast Asia, Australia, Madagascar, south-eastern North America and South America.

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

Gomphostemma is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, first described in 1830. It is native to Southeast Asia, China, and the Indian subcontinent.

  1. Gomphostemma aborensisDunn - Arunachal Pradesh
  2. Gomphostemma arbusculumC.Y.Wu - Yunnan
  3. Gomphostemma callicarpoides(Yamam.) Masam. - Taiwan
  4. Gomphostemma chinenseOliv. - Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangxi, Vietnam
  5. Gomphostemma crinitumWall. ex Benth. - Indochina, Yunnan, Assam, Bangladesh
  6. Gomphostemma curtisiiPrain - Malaya, Sumatra, Borneo
  7. Gomphostemma deltodonC.Y.Wu - Yunnan
  8. Gomphostemma dolichobotrysMerr. - Sumatra
  9. Gomphostemma eriocarpumBenth. - southern India
  10. Gomphostemma grandiflorumDoan ex Suddee & A.J.Paton - Vietnam
  11. Gomphostemma hainanenseC.Y.Wu - Hainan
  12. Gomphostemma hemsleyanumPrain ex Collett & Hemsl. - Java, Myanmar
  13. Gomphostemma heyneanumWall. ex Benth. - southern India
  14. Gomphostemma hirsutumWalsingham - Sabah
  15. Gomphostemma inopinatumPrain - Myanmar
  16. Gomphostemma javanicum(Blume) Benth. - Indochina, Andaman Islands, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Bali, Lombok, Timor, Philippines
  17. Gomphostemma keralensisVivek., Gopalan & R.Ansari. - Kerala
  18. Gomphostemma laceiMukerjee - Myanmar
  19. Gomphostemma latifoliumC.Y.Wu - Yunnan, Guangdong
  20. Gomphostemma leptodonDunn - Guangxi, Vietnam
  21. Gomphostemma lucidumWall. ex Benth. - Indochina, Assam, Bangladesh, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan
  22. Gomphostemma mastersiiBenth. ex Hook.f. - Assam, Bangladesh, Thailand
  23. Gomphostemma melissifoliumWall. ex Benth. - Assam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal
  24. Gomphostemma microcalyxPrain - Borneo, Malaya, Sumatra
  25. Gomphostemma microdonDunn - Yunnan, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam
  26. Gomphostemma nayariiA.S.Chauhan - Assam
  27. Gomphostemma niveumHook.f. - Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Vietnam
  28. Gomphostemma nutansHook.f. - Assam, Myanmar
  29. Gomphostemma ovatumWall. ex Benth. - Assam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal
  30. Gomphostemma parviflorumWall. ex Benth. - Assam, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Yunnan, Indochina, Borneo, Java, Sumatra
  31. Gomphostemma pedunculatumBenth. ex Hook.f. - Assam, Yunnan, Vietnam
  32. Gomphostemma pseudocrinitumC.Y.Wu - Guangxi
  33. Gomphostemma salarkhanianumKhanam & M.A.Hassan - Sylhet District in Bangladesh
  34. Gomphostemma scortechiniiPrain - Myanmar, Thailand, Malaya
  35. Gomphostemma stellatohirsutumC.Y.Wu - Yunnan
  36. Gomphostemma strobilinum Wall. ex Benth. - Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam
  37. Gomphostemma sulcatumC.Y.Wu - Yunnan
  38. Gomphostemma thomsoniiBenth. ex Hook.f. - Assam
  39. Gomphostemma velutinumBenth. - Assam, Bangladesh
  40. Gomphostemma wallichiiPrain - Assam, Myanmar, Thailand

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Illicium L." Plants of the World Online. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2017. Retrieved 13 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 Illicium. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
  3. Watson, L. and M. J. Dallwitz. 1992 onwards. Illiciaceae Van Tiegh. Archived 2007-01-03 at the Wayback Machine The Families of Flowering Plants. Version: 19 August 2013.
  4. Oh, I. C., et al. (2003). Evolution of Illicium (Illiciaceae): mapping morphological characters on the molecular tree. Plant Systematics and Evolution 240(1-4), 175–209.
  5. 1 2 Illicium. Flora of North America.
  6. 1 2 Illiciaceae. Flora of North America.
  7. 1 2 Griffin, J. J., et al. (2004). Photosynthesis, chlorophyll fluorescence, and carbohydrate content of Illicium taxa grown under varied irradiance. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 129(1), 46–53.
  8. Ashburn, D. Illicium belongs in Southern gardens. Archived 2013-09-08 at the Wayback Machine Cooperative Extension. North Carolina State University. 2006.
  9. Morris, Ashley B.; Bell, Charles D.; Clayton, Joshua W.; Judd, Walter S.; Soltis, Douglas E.; Soltis, Pamela S. (2007). "Phylogeny and Divergence Time Estimation in Illicium with Implications for New World Biogeography". Systematic Botany. 32 (2): 236–249. doi:10.1600/036364407781179734. S2CID   86383852.
  10. Biota of North America Program 2013 county distribution map, Illicium floridanum
  11. Biota of North America Program, 2013 county distribution map, Illicium parviflorum

Further reading