Overview
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Critically Endangered |
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Interesting Facts
Description
Family Araliaceae
Trees
or shrubs
, sometimes woody vines
with aerial roots
, rarely perennial
herbs, hermaphroditic
, andromonoecious or dioecious, often with stellate
indumentum or more rarely simple
trichomes
or bristles
, with or without prickles, secretory
canals present in most parts. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite (never in Chinese taxa), simple and often palmately lobed
, palmately compound
, or 1-3-pinnately compound
, usually crowded toward apices of branches, base
of petiole
often broad and sheathing
stem, stipules absent or forming a ligule or membranous border
of petiole. Inflorescence terminal
or pseudo-lateral (by delayed development), umbellate
, compound-umbellate, racemose, racemose-umbellate, or racemose-paniculate, ultimate
units
usually umbels or heads
, occasionally racemes
or spikes, flowers rarely solitary; bracts usually present, often caducous
, rarely foliaceous
. Flowers bisexual
or unisexual
, actinomorphic
. Pedicels often jointed
below ovary and forming an articulation
. Calyx absent or forming a low rim
, sometimes undulate
or with short teeth. Corolla of (3-) 5(-20) petals, free
or rarely united
, mostly valvate
, sometimes imbricate. Stamens usually as many as and alternate with petals, sometimes numerous
, distinct
, inserted
at edge
of disk; anthers
versatile, introrse
, 2-celled (or 4-celled in some non-Chinese taxa), longitudinally dehiscent
. Disk epigynous, often fleshy
, slightly depressed
to rounded
or conic, sometimes confluent
with styles. Ovary inferior (rarely secondarily superior in some non-Chinese taxa), (1 or) 2-10(to many) -carpellate; carpels united, with as many locules; ovules pendulous, 2 per locule, 1 abortive
; styles as many as carpels, free or partially united, erect
or recurved, or fully united to form a column; stigmas terminal or decurrent on inner face
of styles, or sessile on disk, circular to elliptic
and radiating. Fruit a drupe or berry, terete
or sometimes laterally compressed
, occasionally vertically compressed
, exocarp
fleshy; pyrenes cartilaginous
or membranous, often laterally compressed. Seeds 1 per pyrene, embryo small, endosperm uniform
or ruminate
.
About 50 genera and 1350 species: widespread in tropical
and subtropical
regions of both hemispheres, much less diverse
in temperate
areas; 23 genera (two endemic, one introduced
) and 180 species (82 endemic, seven introduced) in China.
Chinese genera of economic importance include Aralia, Eleutherococcus, Heteropanax, Panax, and Tetrapanax (medicinal), Hedera (ornamental
), Fatsia and Schefflera (medicinal and ornamental), and Kalopanax (timber) .
Recent phylogenetic
studies (Plunkett and Lowry, Molec. Phylogen. Evol. 19: 259-276. 2001; Wen et al.
, Syst. Bot. 26: 144-167. 2001; Chandler and Plunkett, Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 144: 123-147. 2004; Mitchell and Wen, Taxon
53: 29-41. 2004; Plunkett et al., S. Afr. J. Bot. 70: 371-381. 2004) have shown that Hydrocotyle Linnaeus belongs to Araliaceae, despite being traditionally included
in Apiaceae (see Fl.
China 14: 14-18. 2005) .
Diplopanax Handel-Mazzetti was at one time placed in Araliaceae but is now regarded as a member
of Mastixiaceae (see Fl. China 14: 231-232. 2005) .[1]
Habitat
Biome: Terrestrial [2].
Ecology: Montane forest .[2].
Taxonomy
- Domain:
Eukaryota
(
)
- Whittaker & Margulis,1978
- eukaryotes
- Kingdom:
Plantae
()
- Haeckel, 1866
- Plants
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
()
- Cavalier-Smith, 1981
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
()
- Sinnott, 1935 ex Cavalier-Smith, 1998
- Vascular Plants
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
()
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
()
- Kenrick & Crane, 1997
- Class:
Magnoliopsida
()
- Brongniart, 1843
- Dicotyledons
- Subclass:
Asteridae
()
- Takhtajan, 1967
- Superorder:
Aralianae
()
- Takhtajan, 1967
- Order:
Apiales
()
- Nakai, 1930
- Family:
Araliaceae
()
- A.L. de Jussieu, 1789, nom. cons.
- Ginseng Family
- Genus:
Megalopanax
()
- Specific epithet:
rex
- Ekman
- Botanical name: - Megalopanax rex Ekman
- Specific epithet:
rex
- Ekman
- Genus:
Megalopanax
(
- Family:
Araliaceae
(
- Order:
Apiales
(
- Superorder:
Aralianae
(
- Subclass:
Asteridae
(
- Class:
Magnoliopsida
(
- Infraphylum:
Radiatopses
(
- Subphylum:
Euphyllophytina
(
- Phylum:
Tracheophyta
(
- Subkingdom:
Viridaeplantae
(
- Kingdom:
Plantae
(
Similar Species
Members of the genus Megalopanax
ZipcodeZoo has pages for 0 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:
More Info
- Search for Pictures: images.google.com
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- 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
- 1997 IUCN red list of threatened plants Cambridge: IUCN, World Conservation Union, 1998 url p. 59.
- Rare and Threatened Plants of Cuba: ex-situ conservation in Botanic gardens IUCN url p. 21.
- The World List of Threatened Trees WCMC, IUCN url p. 347.
- Hoo Gin & Tseng Chang-jiang. 1978. Araliaceae. Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 54: i-ix, 1-210.
Notes
Contributors
- Areces-Mallea, A.E. 1998. In IUCN 2008. 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCNRedList.org. Downloaded July 19, 2008.
- Areces-Mallea, A.E. 1998. Megalopanax rex. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloadedon 02February2012.
- IUCN 2012. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. . Downloaded on January 28, 2012.
Identifiers
- Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 3441606
- IUCN ID: 222227
- Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3963639
Footnotes
- Qibai Xiang & Porter P. Lowry "Araliaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 13 Page 435. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
- Areces-Mallea, A.E. 1998. Megalopanax rex. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 02 February 2012. [back]
