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Magnolioideae

(Subfamily)

Overview

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The Magnoliaceae is a family in the flowering plant Order . It consists of two subfamilies:

Unlike most angiosperms, whose flower parts are in rings, the Magnoliaceae have their stamens and pistils in spirals on a conical receptacle. This arrangement is found in old fossil plants and is believed to be primitive for angiosperms. Their flowers are also not so clearly differentiated into having sepals and petals like most other flowering plants; the "dual-purpose" parts that occupy both positions are known as tepals.

The family has approximately 225 species in 7 genera, although some classification systems include all of subfamily Magnoioideae in genus Magnolia. The family ranges across eastern North America, Mexico and Central America, the West Indies, tropical South America, southern and eastern India, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Malesia, China, Japan, and Korea.

Description

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The monophyly of Magnoliaceae is supported by a number of shared morphological characters. Flowers are bisexual (with the exception of Kmeria and some species of Magnolia section Gynopodium), radial, and with an elongate receptacle. Leaves are alternate, simple, and sometimes lobed. The inflorescence is a solitary flower with indistinguishable petals and sepals. Sepals range from six to many; stamens are numerous and feature short filaments which are poorly differentiated from the anthers. Carpels are usually numerous, distinct, and on an elongate recepticle. The fruit is an aggregate of follicles which usually become closely appressed as they mature and openalong the abaxial surface. Seeds have a fleshy coat and color that ranges from red to orange (except Liriodendron). Magnoliaceae flowers are showy and beetle pollinated, except for Liriodendron, which is bee pollinated. The carpals of Magnolia flowers are especially thick to avoid damage by beetles who feast and crawl on them. The seeds of Magnolioideae are bird dispersed while the seeds of Liriodendron are wind dispersed.

Biogeography

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Due to its great age, Magnoliaceae has become highly scattered in its distribution as a result of major geologic events such as ice ages, continental drift, and mountain formation. This distribution pattern has isolated some species while keeping others in close contact. Extant species of Magnoliaceae are widely distributed in temperate and tropical Asia from the Himalayas to Japan and southwest through Malaysiaand New Guinea. Asia is home to approximately two thirds of the species in Magnoliaceae, with the remainder of the family spread across the Americas with temperate species extending into the southern United States and tropical elements extending into Brazil and the West Indies.

Systematics

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Due to this great deal of family wide morphological similarity, no consensus has yet emerged on the number of genera in the family. The development of DNA sequencing at the end of the twentieth century had a profound impact on the research of phylogenetic relationships within the family. The employment of ndhF and cpDNA sequences has refuted many of the traditionally accepted phylogenetic relationships within Magnoliaceae. For example, it has shown the genera Magnolia and Michelia to be paraphyletic when the remaining four genera of Magnolioideae are split out. In fact, even many of the subgenera (Magnolia Magnolia, Magnolia Talauma) have been found to be paraphyletic. Although no completely resolved phylogeny– for the family has yet been determined, these technological advances have allowed systematists to broadly circumscribe major lineages, word.

Economic Significance

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As a whole, Magnoliaceae is not an economically significant family. With the exception of a great deal of ornamental cultivation, the economic significance of Magnolias is generally confined to the use of wood from certain timber species and the use of bark and flowers from several species believed to possess medicinal qualities. Magnolias have a rich cultural tradition in China where references to their healing qualities go back thousands of years. The Chinese have long used the bark of Magnolia officinalis, a magnolia native to the mountains ofC hina with large leaves and fragrant white flowers, as a remedy for cramps, abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, and indigestion. Certain magnolia flowers, such as the buds of Magnolia liliflora, have been used to treat chronic respiratory infections, sinus infections, and lung congestion. Recently, magnolia bark has become incorporated into alternative medicine in the west where tablets made from the bark of M. officinalis have been marketed as an aid for anxiety, allergies, asthma, and weight-loss. Preliminary studies have suggested that compounds found in magnolia bark might have antibacterial and antifungal properties. To this day, however, there has never been a large scale study on the health effects of magnolia bark or flowers.

Photos

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Taxonomy

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The Subfamily Magnolioideae is a member of the Family Magnoliaceae. Here is the complete "parentage" of Magnolioideae:

The Subfamily Magnolioideae is further organized into finer groupings including:

Genera

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Aethionema

Perennial or annual herbs, often woody below, branched, erect or suberect, leafy, glabrous or rarely papillose. Leaves simple, usually sessile or subsessile, oblong or linear, glaucous. Racemes corymbose, usually many flowered, ebracteate. Flowers mediocre, rose, lilac or white, rarely yellowish; pedicls filiform, usually spreading in fruit. Sepals oblong, obtuse, rounded at apex; inner ±saccate at base; outer often somewhat hooded at apex. Petals obovate, cuneate or clawed, rarely oblong; claw 1-3-nerved. Stamens 6; filaments of longer stamens append-aged, dilated or linear; anthers often apiculate, ovate-orbicular. Lateral nectar glands in pairs, minute, semiglobose; middle usually absent. Ovary ± ellipsoid with narrowly flattened margin, 1-2-locular with 1-2 (rarely 3-4) ovules in each locule; stigma capitate, sub-sessile or on distinct short style. Siliculae ovate, elliptic or suborbicular, laterally flattened, usually winged, dehiscent, (rarely heterocarpic with dehiscent and indehiscent fruits), 1-4-seeded; apex generally deeply notched or emarginate; wing entire or variously dentate; seed ovate, brown, often minutely papillose; radicle incumbent, oblique or accumbent.[1] [more]

Agapanthus

Agapanthus ("Lily of the Nile") is a genus of flower plants with six to ten species depending on how the different species are classified. They are all perennial plants native to South Africa. They have been placed either in the family Alliaceae, or separated into their own monogeneric family Agapanthaceae (e.g. Indices Nominum Supragenericorum Plantarum Vascularium). [more]

Allium

Herbs, perennial, scapose, from tunicate bulbs, with onion odor and taste. Bulbs solitary or clustered, dividing at base, or on rhizomes, reforming annually; outer coats generally brown or gray, smooth, fibrous, or with cellular reticulation (generally important in identification) ; inner coats membranous. Leaves generally withering from tip by anthesis, usually persistent, 1-12, basal; blade usually linear, terete, channeled, or flat (carinate in A. sativum, A. praecox, A. tuberosum, A. rotundum, A. neapolitanum, A. triquetrum, A. unifolium, and A. lacunosum), straight or ± falcate (coiled or circinate in A. nevadense and A. atrorubens), broader in A. victorialis and A. tricoccum, not petiolate (except in A. tricoccum and A. victorialis) . Scape usually persistent, terete or flattened. Inflorescences umbellate, flowering centripetally (centrifugally in A. schoenoprasum), sometimes replaced totally or partially by bulbils, subtended by spathe bracts; bracts conspicuous, ± fused, usually 3+-veined, equaling pedicel except in some introduced species, membranous. Flowers erect (pendent in A. triquetrum) ; tepals 6, in 2 similar whorls, ± distinct, petallike, usually becoming becoming dry and persisting; stamens 6, epipetalous; filaments in all but 1 native species broad at base, fused into ring (some introduced species and A. victorialis appendaged), linear, generally glabrous (A. rotundum and A. hoffmanii papillose to ciliate proximally) ; anthers and pollen variously colored; ovary superior, 3-lobed, sometimes crested with processes, 3-locular, usually 2 ovules per locule (6-8 in A. nigrum), crest processes 3 or 6, smooth except in A. haematochiton, A. sharsmithiae, and A. lacunosum; style 1; stigma capitate to ± 3-lobed; pedicel erect or spreading (lax in A. triquetrum) . Fruits capsular, dehiscence loculicidal. Seeds black, obovoid, finely cellular-reticulate, cells smooth or minutely roughened, with 1-8 papillae, without caruncle except in A. triquetrum. x = 7, 8, 9.[2] [more]

Angraecum

The Angraecum, abbreviated as Angcm in horticultural trade, common name Angrec or Comet Orchid, contains about 220 species, some of them among most magnificent of all orchids. They are quite varied vegetatively and florally and are adapted to dry tropical woodland habitat and have quite fleshy leaves as a consequence. Most are epiphytes, but a few are lithophytes. [more]

Arthropteris

[more]

Ataxia

A Genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]

Aubrieta

Aubrieta is a of about 12 species of flowering plants in the cabbage family Brassicaceae. The genus is named after Claude Aubriet, a French flower-painter. It originates from southern Europe east to central Asia but is now a common garden escape throughout Europe. It is a low, spreading plant, hardy, evergreen and perennial, with small violet, pink or white flowers, and inhabits rocks and banks. It prefers light, well-drained soil, is tolerant of a wide pH range, and can grow in partial shade or full sun. [more]

Baccaurea

Baccaurea is a of flowering plant belonging to the family Phyllanthaceae. The genus comprises about 80 species, distributed from Indomalesia to the West Pacific. [more]

Bergenia

Herbs perennial, forming large clumps. Rhizomes creeping, large, thick, scaly. Leaves all basal, ± persistent, simple, waxy, often leathery; petiole short, broad, sheathing at base; leaf blade thick, margin entire, crenate, or dentate. Infloresences cymose, bracteate. Flowers showy, large. Sepals 5. Petals 5, white, pink, red, or purple. Stamens 10. Carpels 2, basally connate; ovary 1/4 subsuperior, proximally 2-loculed with axile placentation and distally 1-loculed with marginal placentation; styles 2; ovules many. Fruit a capsule. Seeds numerous, dark brown, small.[3] [more]

Blandfordia

Blandfordia is a of flowering plants which are native to eastern Australia. Plants in this genus are commonly referred to as Christmas Bells due to the shape of their flowers and the timing of their flowering season in Australia. Blandfordia is the sole genus in the family Blandfordiaceae and was named by English botanist James Edward Smith in 1804 in honour of George Spencer Churchill, the Marquis of Blandford. [more]

Blechnum

Plants terrestrial or rarely on rock. Stems creeping to ascending or erect, slender to stout, sometimes climbing [rarely subarborescent]; scales brown or black. Leaves monomorphic or variously dimorphic, cespitose to scattered. Blades pinnatifid to 1-pinnate, rarely simple or 2-pinnate. Rachis and costae glabrous, scaly, or hairy abaxially. Veins free, often forked. Sori borne on vascular commissures parallel to costae, 1 per side, normally uninterrupted, linear, continuous along length of costa. Spores with perine smooth to variously winged or rugose. x = 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 36.[4] [more]

Bombycilla

The waxwings form the genus Bombycilla of birds. According to most authorities, this is the only genus placed in the family Bombycillidae. [more]

Botrychium

Plants terrestrial. Roots occasionally branching laterally, yellowish to black, 0.5--2 mm diam., smooth or with corky ridges, not proliferous. Stems upright, forming caudex to 5 mm thick; gemmae absent or minute, spheric. Trophophores ascending to perpendicular to stem, sessile or stalked; blades linear, oblong, or deltate, simple to 5-pinnate, 4--25 × 1--35 cm. Pinnae (reduced to segments in many species) spreading to ascending, fan-shaped to lanceolate to linear; margins entire to dentate to lacerate, apex rounded or acute; veins free, arranged like ribs of fan or pinnate. Sporophores normally 1 per leaf, 1--3-pinnate, long-stalked, borne at ground level to high on common stalk. Sporangial clusters with sporangia sessile to short-stalked, almost completely exposed, borne in 2 rows on pinnate (except in very small plants) sporophore branches. Gametophytes broadly ovate, unbranched, 1--3 × 1--10 mm. x =44, 45, 92.[5] [more]

Bougainvillea

Shrubs or small trees, sometimes climbing. Branches spiny. Leaves alternate, petiolate, leaf blade ovate or elliptic-lanceolate. Inflorescences axillary, pedunculate, 3-flowered cymes, each flower subtended by a persistent, often brightly colored, ovate bract adnate to the pedicel, often grouped into terminal panicles. Flowers bisexual; pedicel adnate to the midvein or the bract. Perianth connate, limb rose or yellow, funnelform, 5-6-lobed, lobes short. Stamens 5-10, included; filaments shortly united at base. Ovary fusiform, stipitate. Style lateral, short linear; stigma fimbriate. Fruit cylindric or clavate, 5-ribbed, without sticky glands. Seed: testa thin; embryo curved, cotyledons convolute, enclosing the endosperm.[6] [more]

Brachyotum

Brachyotum is a genus of in family Melastomataceae. [more]

Campanula

Plants perennial or annual, erect trailing or decumbent, glabrous, pubescent, or hirsute. Leaves simple, alternate or forming rosettes at the base. Inflorescence 1-many flowered, with racemes or spikes. Flowers blue to purple or white. Sepals 5, with or without reflexed appendages between lobes; calyx tube adnate to the ovary, segments 5-lobed. Corolla campanulate, funnel-shaped or tubular. Stamens 5, free, filaments dilated at the base. Ovary 3-locular; style cylindrical; stigmas 3. Fruit a capsule, elongated to ovoid, obovoid or round, with membran¬ous walls; dehiscence by irregular pores at the bases or the sides. Seeds minute, numerous.[7] [more]

Ceanothus

Ceanothus is a genus of about 50–60 species of shrubs or small trees in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. The genus is confined to North America, the center of its distribution in California, with some species (e.g. C. americanus) in the eastern United States and southeast Canada, and others (e.g. C. coeruleus) extending as far south as Guatemala. Most are shrubs 0.5–3 m tall, but C. arboreus and C. thyrsiflorus, both from California, can be small trees up to 6–7 m tall. [more]

Ceiba

Trees, deciduous; trunk swollen and/or buttressed, trunk and branches usually spiny. Petiole long; leaf blade palmately compound; leaflets 3-5(-9), shortly petiolulate, both surfaces glabrous, abaxially gray-white, base attenuate, margin serrate or entire. Flowers blooming before or simultaneously with leaf flush, solitary or 2-15-fascicled, pendulous, axillary or subterminal, actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic. Calyx campanulate, truncate or irregularly 3-5(-12) -lobed, thickly fleshy, persistent. Petals 5, pink or yellow-white, connate at base and coherent to staminal tube, falling with stamens and style. Stamens (3-) 5-15; filament tube short, sometimes thickened or with sterile appendages, free parts of filament long to absent, each bearing 2(or 3) straight to strongly twisted thecae. Ovary syncarpous, 5-locular; ovules many per cell; style filiform; stigma capitate to lobulate. Capsule oblong or nearly obovate, pendulous, woody or leathery, loculicidally dehiscent into 5(or 6) valves, inner walls densely woolly. Seeds many, enclosed in wool.[8] [more]

Centaurea

Annuals, biennials, or perennials, 20-300 cm, glabrous or tomentose. Stems erect, ascending, or spreading, simple or branched. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate or sessile; proximal blade margins often ± deeply lobed, (spiny in C. benedicta ), distal ± smaller, often entire, faces glabrous or ± tomentose, sometimes also villous, strigose, or puberulent, often glandular-punctate. Heads discoid, disciform, or radiant, borne singly or in corymbiform arrays. Involucres cylindric or ovoid to hemispheric . Phyllaries many in 6-many series, unequal, proximal part appressed, body margins entire. distal parts expanded into erect to spreading, usually ± dentate or fringed, linear to ovate appendages, spine. tipped or spineless. Receptacles flat, epaleate, bristly. Florets 10-many; outer usually sterile, corollas slender and inconspicuous to much expanded, ± bilateral; inner fertile, corollas white to blue, pink, purple, or yellow, bilateral or radial, often bent at junction of tubes and throats, lobes linear-oblong, acute; anther bases tailed, apical appendages oblong; style branches: fused portions with minutely hairy nodes, distinct portions minute. Cypselae ± barrel-shaped, ± compressed, smooth or ribbed, apices entire (denticulate in C. benedicta ), glabrous or with fine, 1-celled hairs, attachment scar. lateral (with or without elaiosomes) ; pappi 0 or ± persistent, of 1-3 series of smooth or minutely barbed, stiff bristles or narrow scales . x = 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15.[9] [more]

Centaurium

Annuals. Stems erect, obscurely 4angled. Leaves opposite. Cymes pseudodichotomous, sometimes spicate. Flowers [4 or] 5merous. Calyx lobed nearly to base. Corolla salverform, lobes shorter than tube. Stamens inserted at throat of corolla tube; filaments filiform, erect at first, helically coiled later; anthers dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary partly 2-locular. Style linear; stigma lobes orbicular. Capsules 2valved, many seeded. Seed coat alveolate.[10] [more]

Cephalanthera

Herbs, perennial, achlorophyllous. Roots fleshy, slender, scattered along slender rhizome. Stems leafy. Leaves several, alternate; blade spreading, plicate, or reduced to