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Rhamnaceae

(Family)

Overview

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Rhamnaceae, the Buckthorn family, is a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs and some vines.

The family contains 50-60 genera and approximately 870-900 species. The Rhamnaceae have a worldwide distribution, but are more common in the subtropical and tropical regions. The earliest fossil evidence of Rhamnaceae is from the Eocene.

The simple leaves can be either alternate and spiraling, or opposite. Stipules are present. These leaves are modified into spines in many genera, in some (e.g. Paliurus spina-christi and Colletia cruciata) spectacularly so. Colletia stands out by having two axillary buds instead of one, one developing into a thorn, the other one into a shoot.

Flowers of Ceanothus cuneatus

The flowers are radially symmetrical. There are 5 (sometimes 4) separate sepals and 5 (sometimes 4 or none) separate petals. The petals may be white, yellowish, greenish, pink or blue, and are small and inconspicuous in most genera, though in some (e.g. Ceanothus) the dense clusters of flowers are conspicuous. The 5 or 4 stamens are isomerous with the petals (i.e. one stamen opposite each petal). The ovary is superior, with 2 or 3 ovules (or one by abortion).

The fruits are mostly berries, fleshy drupes or nuts. Some are adapted to wind carriage, but most are dispersed by mammals and birds. Chinese jujube is the fruit of the jujube tree (Ziziphus zizyphus) and is a major fruit in China.

The American genus Ceanothus, which has several showy ornamental species, has nitrogen-fixing root nodules.

Economic uses of the Rhamnaceae are chiefly as ornamental plants and as the source of many brilliant green and yellow dyes. The wood of Rhamnus was also the most favoured species to make charcoal for use in gunpowder before the development of modern propellants.

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i>Rhamnaceae, the Buckthorn family, is a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs and some vines.

The family contains 50-60 genera and approximately 870-900 species. The Rhamnaceae have a worldwide distribution, but are more common in the subtropical and tropical regions. The earliest fossil evidence of Rhamnaceae is from the Eocene.

The simple leaves can be either alternate and spiraling, or opposite. Stipules are present. These leaves are modified into spines in many genera, in some (e.g. Paliurus spina-christi and Colletia cruciata) spectacularly so. Colletia stands out by having two axillary buds instead of one, one developing into a thorn, the other one into a shoot.

Flowers of Ceanothus cuneatus

The flowers are radially symmetrical. There are 5 (sometimes 4) separate sepals and 5 (sometimes 4 or none) separate petals. The petals may be white, yellowish, greenish, pink or blue, and are small and inconspicuous in most genera, though in some (e.g. Ceanothus) the dense clusters of flowers are conspicuous. The 5 or 4 stamens are isomerous with the petals (i.e. one stamen opposite each petal). The ovary is superior, with 2 or 3 ovules (or one by abortion).

The fruits are mostly berries, fleshy drupes or nuts. Some are adapted to wind carriage, but most are dispersed by mammals and birds. Chinese jujube is the fruit of the jujube tree (Ziziphus zizyphus) and is a major fruit in China.

The American genus Ceanothus, which has several showy ornamental species, has nitrogen-fixing root nodules.

Economic uses of the Rhamnaceae are chiefly as ornamental plants and as the source of many brilliant green and yellow dyes. The wood of Rhamnus was also the most favoured species to make charcoal for use in gunpowder before the development of modern propellants.

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References

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  1. ^ Walter S. Judd and Richard G. Olmstead (2004). "A survey of tricolpate (eudicot) phylogenetic relationships". American Journal of Botany 91 (10): 1627?1644. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.10.1627. PMID 21652313.  (full text )
  2. ^ "Family: Rhamnaceae Juss., nom. cons.". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2003-01-17. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/family.pl?953. Retrieved 2011-01-29. 
  3. ^ "Granitites". FloraBase. Department of Environment and Conservation, Government of Western Australia. http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/21733. 
  4. ^ "GRIN Genera of Rhamnaceae". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/gnlist.pl?953. Retrieved 2011-01-29. 

External links

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Taxonomy

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The Family Rhamnaceae is further organized into finer groupings including:

Genera

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Adolia

[more]

Adolphia

Adolphia is a genus of shrubs in the buckthorn family containing only two species. These are rigid, thorny, flowering bushes. Adolphia californica, the California prickbush or California spineshrub, is native to southern California and northern Mexico. , the junco, is found in Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. This genus is named for the French botanist Adolphe-Th?odore Brongniart. [more]

Alaternus

[more]

Alphitonia

Alphitonia is an arborescent genus of flowering plants with about 20 species, belonging to the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae) of the rosid eudicots. It occurs in tropical regions of Southeast Asia, Oceania and Polynesia. These are large trees or shrubs. In Australia, these plants are often called "ash trees" or "sarsaparilla trees". This is rather misleading however; among the flowering plants, Alphitonia is not closely related to the true ash trees (Fraxinus of the asterids), and barely at all to the monocot sarsaparilla vines (Smilax). [more]

Alvimiantha

[more]

Ampeloplis

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Ampelozizyphus

Ampelozizyphus is a genus of plants in the family Rhamnaceae. It includes a single species Ampelozizyphus amazonicus found in Brazil. [more]

Apetlorhamnus

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Araliorhamnus

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Atulandra

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Aubletia

[more]

Auerodendron

Auerodendron is a genus of plant in family Rhamnaceae. [more]

Barcena

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Bathiorhamnus

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Bellardiochloa

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Berchemia

Berchemia is a genus of plants in the family Rhamnaceae, named after Dutch botanist Berthout van Berchem. They are climbing plants or small to medium-sized trees that occur in Africa, Asia and America. [more]

Berchemiella

Berchemiella is a genus of plants in the family Rhamnaceae. It includes three species, two found in China and another in Japan. [more]

Blackallia

[more]

Calophylica

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Cardiolepis

[more]

Ceanothus

Ceanothus L. () 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, with the center of its distribution in California. Some species (e.g. C. americanus) are found in the eastern United States and southeast Canada, and others (e.g. C. coeruleus) extend 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. The name is derived from the Greek word ?ea????? (keanothos), which was applied by Theophrastus (371-287 BC) to a spiny Old World plant believed to be Cirsium arvense. [more]

Cervispina

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Chacaya

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Chaydaia

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Colletia

Colletia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rhamnaceae, with 15 to 17 species of spiny shrubs. All species of this genus are native to southern South America. They are non-legume nitrogen fixers. [more]

Colubrina

Colubrina is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Africa, the Americas, southern Asia, northern Australia, and the Indian Ocean islands. Common names include nakedwood, snakewood, greenheart and hogplum. The generic name is derived from the Latin word coluber, meaning "snake", and refers to the snake-like stems or stamens. [more]

Condalia

Condalia is a genus of spiny shrubs in the tribe of the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae. It was named for Antonio Condal, an 18th Spanish physician. Members of the genus are native to tropical and subtropical deserts and xeric shrublands in North and South America. The ranges of each species vary considerably; some are confined to only a few square miles, while others can be found on an area up to 1,000 sq mi (2,600 km2). [more]

Condaliopsis

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Cormonema

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Crumenaria

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Cryptandra

Cryptandra is a genus of shrub in the plant family Rhamnaceae. [more]

Dallachya

[more]

Diplisca

[more]

Disaster

A Genus in the Kingdom Plantae. [more]

Discaria

Discaria is a genus of about 12 species of in the family Rhamnaceae, native to temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere, in Australia, New Zealand and South America. [more]

Doerpfeldia

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Emmenosperma

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Emmenospermum

Endotropis

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Enrila

[more]

Frangula

The Buckthorns (Rhamnus) are a (or two genera, if Frangula is treated as distinct) of about 100 species of shrubs or small trees from 1-10 m tall (rarely to 15 m), in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. They are native throughout the temperate and subtropical Northern Hemisphere, and also more locally in the subtropical Southern Hemisphere in parts of Africa and South America. Some species are invasive outside their natural ranges. [more]

Girtanneria

[more]

Gouania

Gouania is a genus of flowering plants in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae. The 50 to 70 species it contains are native to tropical and subtropical regions of the world, including Africa, Madagascar, the Indian Ocean islands, southern Asia, the Americas and Hawaii. They are shrubs or lianas. A revision of the species in Madagascar and the other western Indian Ocean islands is in preparation, where the genus has an important centre of diversity. The work will recognise several new species. [more]

Granitites

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Helinus

Hollia

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Hovenia

Deciduous trees or rarely shrubs, to 25 m tall. Young branches often pilose or tomentose. Leaves alternate, long petiolate, 3-veined from base, primary vein with 4-8 pairs of secondary veins, leaf base ± oblique, margin serrate. Flowers white or yellow-green, bisexual, 5-merous, in terminal or axillary, cymose panicles. Calyx tube hemispherical; lobes triangular, adaxially ± distinctly keeled. Petals elliptic to ovate, shortly clawed at base, rarely slightly emarginate apically, often ± completely enfolding stamens, ± widely reflexed during anthesis. Stamens enfolded by petals; filaments lanceolate-linear; anthers dorsifixed. Disk subrounded, thick, fleshy, often ± densely pubescent, rarely glabrous, filling calyx tube. Ovary semi-inferior, nearly completely immersed in disk, 3-loculed, with 1 ovule per locule; style 2- or 3-fid, ± deeply branched. Drupe subglobose, glabrous to densely hairy, base with persistent calyx tube, apex with rudimentary style; mesocarp leathery, often separating from membranous endocarp; peduncles and pedicels of infructescence becoming distinctly fleshy and juicy at fruit maturity. Seeds 3, brownish to blackish, shiny, oblate to orbicular, often spotted with minute pits.[1] [more]

Hybosperma

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Johnstonalia

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Johnstonia

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Jububa

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Karlea

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Karwinskia

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Kentrothamnus

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Krugiodendron

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Kurzinda

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Lamellisepalum

Lasiodiscus

Ledelia

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Lithoplis

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Lupulus

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Macrorhamnus

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Maesopsis

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Mansana

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Marcorella

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Marlothia

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Microrhamnus

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Mystacinus

Nesiota

The Saint Helena Olive (Nesiota elliptica) is a recently extinct plant from the monotypic genus of flowering plants Nesiota within the family Rhamnaceae. [more]

Noltea

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Notophaena

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Ochetophila

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Oenoplea

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Oreoherzogia

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Oreorhamnus

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Paliuros

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Paliurus

Paliurus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rhamnaceae. The eight species are native to warm, dry regions of Eurasia and North Africa from Morocco and Spain east to Japan and Taiwan. [more]

Papistylus

Perfonon

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Petalopogon

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Phylica

Phylica is a genus of in family Rhamnaceae. [more]

Phyllogeiton

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Pleuranthodes

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Polianthion

Pomaderris

Pomaderris is a genus of 70 species of shrub to small tree in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. 65 of the species are native to Australia and the other five are from New Zealand. There is some overlap. [more]

Pomatoderris

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Reissekia

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Retanilla

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Retinaria

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Reynosia

Reynosia is a genus of in family Rhamnaceae. [more]

Rhamnella

Rhamnella is a genus of plant in family Rhamnaceae. It contains the following species (but this list may be incomplete): [more]

Rhamnidium

Rhamnidium is a genus of in family Rhamnaceae. [more]

Rhamnites

Rhamnobrina

[more]

Rhamnus

Rhamnus (Greek Ραμνоυς — Ramnous) is an archaeological site in Greece. It is located at the northeastern part of Attica, next to the Euboean Gulf. [more]

Rhamzogia

[more]

Sageretia

Sageretia (Sageretia or Mock Buckthorn) is a genus of about 35 species of shrubs and small trees in the family Rhamnaceae, native to southern and eastern Asia and northeast Africa. They have small green leaves 1.5-4 cm long, and a leathery multicolored trunk. The flowers are small and inconspicuous; the fruit is a small edible drupe 1 cm diameter. [more]

Sarcomphalus

Sarcomphalus is a genus of in family Rhamnaceae. [more]

Schieckia

[more]

Schistocarpaea

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Sciadophila

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Scutia

Shrubs scandent or erect, spinose or unarmed. Leaves opposite or subopposite, leathery, margin entire or inconspicuously serrulate. Flowers hermaphroditic, 5-merous, few fascicled in leaf axils or in shortly pedunculate axillary cymes, shortly pedicellate. Calyx tube hemispherical or turbinate; sepals 5, triangular. Petals deeply obcordate or bilobed, base clawed, shorter than sepals. Stamens equaling petals. Disk thin, lining calyx tube, slightly fleshy, at margin free. Ovary globose, immersed in disk, 2-5-loculed, with 1 ovule per locule; style short, undivided or 2-4-fid. Drupe obovoid-globose or subglobose, apex often with rudimentary style, base surrounded by persistent calyx tube, with 2-4 one-seeded stones, embedded in a thin, fleshy pulp at maturity. Seeds not furrowed, seed coat thin to nearly leathery.[2] [more]

Scypharia

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Serichonus

Siegfriedia

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Smythea

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Solenandra

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Sondaria

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Soulangia

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Spyridium

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Stenanthemum

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Stenodiscus

Talguenea

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Tetrapasma

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Tetrasperma

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Trevoa

Trichocephalus

A Genus in the Kingdom Animalia. [more]

Trymalium

[more]

Tubanthera

[more]

Tylanthus

[more]

Ventilago

Climbing shrubs or lianas, rarely small trees. Leaves alternate, leathery or nearly so, rarely papery, conspicuously reticulate, base asymmetric, margin entire or toothed. Flowers small, bisexual, 5-merous, few in fascicles or in shortly pedunculate cymes, or in terminal or axillary, cymose panicles. Sepals 5, triangular, adaxially medially keeled. Petals obovate-orbicular, apex emarginate, rarely absent. Disk thick, fleshy, pentagonous. Ovary globose, immersed in disk, 2-loculed, with 1 ovule per locule; styles 2-fid. Fruit a 1-seeded, indehiscent samara, 1/3-1/2 of base surrounded by persistent calyx tube, apex with longitudinally elongating oblong wing, with relict styles; endocarp globose, thin, woody, 1-loculed, 1-seeded. Seeds without endosperm; cotyledon thick.[3] [more]

Walpersia

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Wichuraea

Willemetia

[more]

Ziziphus

Ziziphus () is a genus of about 40 species of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, distributed in the warm-temperate and subtropical regions throughout the world. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three prominent basal veins, and 2?7 cm (0.79?2.8 in) long; some species are deciduous, others evergreen. The flowers are small, inconspicuous yellow-green. The fruit is an edible drupe, yellow-brown, red, or black, globose or oblong, 1?5 cm (0.39?2.0 in) long, often very sweet and sugary, reminiscent of a date in texture and flavour. [more]

Zizphus

[more]

Zizyphon

[more]

Zizyphus

Ziziphus () is a genus of about 40 species of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae, distributed in the warm-temperate and subtropical regions throughout the world. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three prominent basal veins, and 2?7 cm (0.79?2.8 in) long; some species are deciduous, others evergreen. The flowers are small, inconspicuous yellow-green. The fruit is an edible drupe, yellow-brown, red, or black, globose or oblong, 1?5 cm (0.39?2.0 in) long, often very sweet and sugary, reminiscent of a date in texture and flavour. [more]

At least 34 species and subspecies belong to the Genus Zizyphus.

More info about the Genus Zizyphus may be found here.

References

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  1. ^ Walter S. Judd and Richard G. Olmstead (2004). "A survey of tricolpate (eudicot) phylogenetic relationships". American Journal of Botany 91 (10): 1627?1644. doi:10.3732/ajb.91.10.1627. PMID 21652313.  (full text )
  2. ^ "Family: Rhamnaceae Juss., nom. cons.". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2003-01-17. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/family.pl?953. Retrieved 2011-01-29. 
  3. ^ "Granitites". FloraBase. Department of Environment and Conservation, Government of Western Australia. http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/21733. 
  4. ^ "GRIN Genera of Rhamnaceae". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/gnlist.pl?953. Retrieved 2011-01-29. 

External links

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Bibliography

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Footnotes

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  1. "Hovenia". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 115, 117. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
  2. "Scutia". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 116, 162. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.
  3. "Ventilago". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 115, 164. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Sources

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Last Revised: August 24, 2012
2012/08/24 13:41:46