Adolphia californica

• Overview
• Interesting Facts
• Common Names
• Description
• Biology
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Overview

Vulnerable

Interesting Facts

Common Names

Description

Family Rhamnaceae

Deciduous or evergreen , often thorny trees , shrubs , woody climbers , or lianas, rarely herbs. Leaves simple , petiolate , alternate or opposite, pinnately veined or 3-5-veined, entire to serrate, sometimes much reduced; stipules small, caducous or persistent , sometimes transformed into spines. Flowers yellowish to greenish, rarely brightly colored , small, bisexual or unisexual , rarely polygamous, (4 or) 5-merous, hypogynous to epigynous , in mostly axillary , sessile or pedunculate cymes, or reduced to few in fascicles. Calyx tube patelliform or hemispherical to tubular , sometimes absent, at rim with calyx, corolla, and stamens; sepals 4 or 5, valvate in bud, triangular, erect or ± recurved during anthesis , adaxially often distinctly keeled , alternate with petals. Petals 4 or 5, rarely absent, usually smaller than sepals, concave or hooded , rarely nearly flat, often shortly clawed. Stamens 4 or 5, antepetalous and often ± enclosed by petals; filaments thin, adnate to bases of petals; anthers minute, versatile or not, 2(or 4) -celled, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, usually introrse . Disk intrastaminal , nectariferous , thin to ± fleshy , entire or lobed , glabrous or rarely pubescent , free from ovary or tightly surrounding it, or adnate to calyx tube. Ovary superior to inferior, (1 or) 2-4-loculed, with 1(or 2) ovules per locule; ovules anatropous , basal and erect; styles simple or ± deeply 3-lobed or 3-cleft. Fruit either an indehiscent, rarely explosively dehiscent , sometimes winged , schizocarpic capsule, or a ± fleshy drupe with 1-4 indehiscent, rarely dehiscent, pyrenes (stones ) . Seeds with thin, oily albumen, sometimes exalbuminous ; embryo large, oily, straight or rarely bent.

About 50 genera and more than 900 species: almost cosmopolitan , mainly in subtropical to tropical areas; 13 genera and 137 species (82 endemic, one introduced ) in China.

Former classifications usually placed Rhamnaceae in the Rhamnales, together with Vitaceae and Leeaceae (Suessenguth in Engler & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam., ed. 2, 20d. 1953), or together with Elaeagnaceae (Thorne, Bot. Rev. 58: 225-348. 1992) . Orders such as Celastrales, Urticales, and Euphorbiales have often been considered as closely related groups. Recent analyses of DNA sequences strongly supported including the family in the Rosales, beside the closest relatives Barbeyaceae and Dirachmaceae (see Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 141: 399-436. 2003) . Suessenguth (loc. cit. ) grouped the family into five tribes , mainly characterized by fruit characters. Richardson et al. (Kew Bull . 55: 311-340. 2000; Amer. J. Bot. 87: 1309-1324. 2000) revised this tribal classification on the basis of a phylogenetic analysis using rbcL and trnL-F sequences of the plastid genome. Now 11 tribes are recognized, of which four are represented in the Flora area.



The bark , leaves, and fruit of several species of Rhamnus have been used as laxatives , notably R. cathartica and R. frangula. Diverse Old World species of Rhamnus provide yellow and green dyes as well as drugs. Timber of Alphitonia, Colubrina, Hovenia, and Ziziphus species is used for construction, fine furniture, carving, lathework, and musical instruments. Many Ziziphus species yield edible fruit; among them, Z. jujuba (Chinese jujube) and Z. mauritiana (Indian jujube) are cultivated on a commercial scale. Hovenia dulcis is also grown for its edible, fleshy inflorescence stalks . Species of Hovenia, Paliurus, and Rhamnus are cultivated as ornamentals .[1]

Physical Description

Biology

Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name .

Last scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Similar Species

Members of the genus Adolphia

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 2 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

A. californica (California Adolphia) · A. infesta (Junco)

More Info

• Search for Pictures: images.google.com
• Search for Scholarly Articles: Google Scholar
• Search using Scientific Name and Vernacular Names: All the Web | AltaVista Canada | AltaVista | Excite | Google | HotBot | Lycos
• Search using Specialized Databases: GenBank | Medline | Scirus | CISTI/CAL | Agricola Periodicals | Agricola Books

Further Reading

• A flora of California, by Willis Linn Jepson. San Francisco, Calif., Cunningham, Curtis & Welch, 1909- url p. 455.
• A phytogeographic and taxonomic study of the southern California trees and shrubs. New York, 1910 url p. 319, p. 415.
• An illustrated flora of the Pacific States: Washington, Oregon, and California. Stanford University, Stanford University Press, 1923-[60] url p. 81.
• Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden. 6 1908-1910 Lancaster, Pa.: Published for the Garden by the New Era Printing Co., url p. 319, p. 415.
• Carnegie Institution of Washington publication. Washington, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1902- url p. 191.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 23 1920-1926 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 718.
• Native woody plants of the United States, their erosion-control and wildlife values. Washington, U. S. Govt. print. off., 1938. url p. 43.
• Occasional papers - San Diego Society of Natural History. San Diego, The Society. url p. 88.
• Transactions of the Academy of Science of St. Louis. [St. Louis: Academy of Science of St. Louis], 1860-1958. url p. 262, p. 262, p. 262.
• Transactions of the San Diego Society of Natural History. 12 [San Diego]: The Society, 1905-1989. url p. 481.
• Trees and shrubs of Mexico / By Paul C. Standley. Washington, Govt. Print. Off., 1920-1926. url p. 718.
• Winter botany, a companion volume to the author's Plant materials of decorative gardening, by William Trelease. .. Urbana, The author, 1918. url p. 221.
• Year book - Carnegie Institution of Washington. Washington, Carnegie Institution of Washington url p. 97.
• Chen Yi-ling and Chou Pan-kai. 1982. Rhamnaceae. In: Chen Yi-ling, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 48(1): i-vi, 1-169.

Notes

Contributors

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed February 02, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 6 providers.
• Ruggiero M., Gordon D., Bailly N., Kirk P., Nicolson D. (2011). The Catalogue of Life Taxonomic Classification, Edition 2, Part A. In: Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2011 Annual Checklist (Bisby F.A., Roskov Y.R., Orrell T.M., Nicolson D., Paglinawan L.E., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Ouvrard D., eds). DVD; Species 2000: Reading, UK.

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal February 02, 2008:

• Missouri Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical Garden
• The New York Botanical Garden, Vascular Plant Type Specimens
• USDA PLANTS, USDA PLANTS Database

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2652046
• Catalogue of Life Accepted Name Code: ITS-28449
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) Taxonomic Serial Number (TSN): 28449
• International Plant Names Index (IPNI) ID: 716594-1
• Natural Heritage Network Species Identifier: PDRHA01010
• U.S.D.A. Plant Symbol: ADCA2
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 19718

Footnotes

1. Yilin Chen & Carsten Schirarend "Rhamnaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 12 Page 115,355. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.