Therofon aconitifolium

• Interesting Facts
• Description
• Taxonomy
• Similar Species
• More Info
• Further Reading
• Notes

Interesting Facts

Description

Family Saxifragaceae

Herbs or shrubs , rarely trees or vines . Leaves simple or compound , usually alternate or opposite, usually exstipulate . Flowers usually in cymes, panicles, or racemes , rarely solitary, usually bisexual , rarely unisexual , hypogynous or ± epigynous , rarely perigynous, usually biperianthial, rarely monochlamydeous , actinomorphic , rarely zygomorphic, 4- or 5(-10) -merous. Sepals sometimes petal-like. Petals usually free , sometimes absent. Stamens (4 or) 5-10 or many; filaments free; anthers 2-loculed; staminodes often present. Carpels 2, rarely 3-5(-10), usually ± connate ; ovary superior or semi-inferior to inferior, 2- or 3-5(-10) -loculed with axile placentation , or 1-loculed with parietal placentation , rarely with apical placentation; ovules usually many, 2- to many seriate , crassinucellate or tenuinucellate , sometimes with transitional forms; integument 1- or 2-seriate; styles free or ± connate. Fruit a capsule or berry, rarely a follicle or drupe. Seeds albuminous , rarely not so; albumen of cellular type, rarely of nuclear type; embryo small.

About 80 genera and 1200 species: worldwide; 29 genera (two endemic), and 545 species (354 endemic, seven introduced ) in China.

During the past several years, cladistic analyses of morphological, chemical, and DNA data have made it clear that the recognition of the Saxifragaceae sensu lato (Engler, Nat. Pflanzenfam. 18a: 74-226. 1928) is untenable. Among the angiosperm families, Saxifragaceae sensu lato may in fact represent the most extreme example of a polyphyletic assemblage . For example, recent analyses of DNA sequence data indicate that these taxa represent at least ten separate evolutionary lines , many of which are only distantly related to one another (Morgan & Soltis, Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 80: 631-660. 1993; Soltis & Soltis, Amer. J. Bot. 84: 504-522. 1997) . Furthermore, very large molecular phylogenetic analyses of hundreds of angiosperms indicate that these separate lineages are distributed among four of the six traditionally recognized subclasses of dicotyledons (Savolainen et al. , Syst. Biol. 49: 306-362. 2000; Soltis et al., Nature 402: 402-404. 1999) . These recent studies have also greatly clarified how this phylogenetically diverse assemblage should be divided into families and treated taxonomically (see The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG), Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 85: 531-553. 1998) . Recent studies of DNA sequence data have clarified both the circumscription and affinities of a narrowly defined Saxifragaceae (Saxifragaceae sensu stricto) and Hydrangeaceae (Soltis et al., Amer. J. Bot. 82: 504-514. 1995; Savolainen et al., loc. cit. ; Soltis et al., loc. cit. 1999) . Saxifragaceae sensu stricto should consist only of Saxifragoideae, a group of about 30 herbaceous genera. Members of Saxifragaceae sensu stricto from the Chinese flora include Astilbe, Astilboides, Bergenia, Chrysosplenium, Mitella, Mukdenia, Oresitrophe, Rodgersia, Saxifraga, Tanakaea, Tiarella, and the recently described Saniculiphyllum. Close relatives of Saxifragaceae sensu stricto include Itea, Penthorum, and Ribes. These genera, the sole members of Iteoideae, Penthoroideae, and Ribesioideae, respectively, are also best treated in separate families: Iteaceae, Penthoraceae, and Grossulariaceae (see APG, loc. cit.) . These taxa, as well as several others, such as Crassulaceae, are basal to a large assemblage of taxa, most of which were traditionally placed in Rosidae . Sequence data also indicate that Parnassia (the sole member of the Parnassioideae) is a more derived member of the rosid alliance , most closely related to Brexia and Lepuropetalon (also part of Saxifragaceae sensu lato) and Celastraceae. Parnassia and Lepuropetalon should be placed in Parnassiaceae with Brexia part of an expanded Celastraceae (APG, loc. cit.) .

Both morphological and molecular data indicate that Hydrangeoideae and Escallonioideae are, in contrast, allied with taxa traditionally placed in Asteridae. Hydrangeoideae are a well-defined, monophyletic lineage that should be treated as Hydrangeaceae. In China they include Cardiandra, Decumaria, Deinanthe, Deutzia, Dichroa, Hydrangea, Kirengeshoma, Philadelphus, Pileostegia, Platycrater, and Schizophragma, and are closely allied with families such as Cornaceae, Loasaceae, and Nyssaceae. Escallonioideae appear to be polyphyletic, and this group of approximately 14 genera is in need of thorough study. Members of this subfamily are allied with several different lineages of higher asterids. Polyosma, the only member of Escallonioideae in China, appears closely allied with Caprifoliaceae (Xiang & Soltis in Boufford & Ohba, Sino-Japanese Flora: its Characteristics and Diversification, 1998) .[1]

Taxonomy

Notes

Publishing author : Millsp. Publication : Bull . West Va. Agric. Exp. Sta. ii. (1892) 361

Similar Species

Members of the genus Therofon

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More Info

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Further Reading

• An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British possessions: from Newfoundland to the parallel of the southern boundary of Virginia and from the Atlantic Ocean westward to the 102nd meridian / by Nathaniel Lord Britton and Hon. Addison Brown. New York: Scribner, 1913. url p. 223, p. 223.
• Britton, N. L. (ed.). North American flora. 22 1905 [New York]New York Botanical Garden. url p. 123.
• Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden. 1 1900 Lancaster, Pa.: Published for the Garden by the New Era Printing Co., url p. 350.
• Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 6 1901 Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1890- url p. 533, p. 915.
• Flora of West Virginia, by Charles Frederick Millspaugh and Lawrence William Nuttall. 1 1896 Chicago, 1896. url p. 208.
• Journal of the New York Botanical Garden. 35 1934 Lancaster, Pa.: Published for the Garden by the New Era Printing Co., 1900- url p. 137, p. 304.
• List of Pteridophyta and Spermatophyta growing without cultivation in northeastern North America. Prepared by a Committee of the Botanical Club, American Association for the Advancement of Science. New York, 1894. url p. 177.
• Manual of the flora of the northern states and Canada / by Nathaniel Lord Britton. New York: Holt, 1905. url p. 480.
• Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Club. 4 1893 Durham, N.C.: Published for the Club by the Seeman Printery, 1889- url p. 119, p. 177.
• Plant life of Alabama, an account of the distribution, modes of association, and adaptations of the flora of Alabama, together with a systematic catalogue of the plants growing in the state. By Charles Mohr. .. Montgomery, Ala., Brown printing co., 1901. url p. 533.
• Plant life of Alabama: an account of the distribution, modes of association, and adaptations of the flora of Alabama, together with a systematic catalogue of the plants growing in the state / by Charles Mohr. Montgomery, Ala.: Brown Printing Co., 1901. url p. 533, p. 915.
• Publication. Field Columbian Museum. Chicago.: Field Columbian Museum, 1895-1909. url p. 208.
• Small, J. K. Flora of the southeastern United States;being descriptions of the seed-plants, ferns and fern-allies growing naturally in North Carolina, South Carolin, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and the Indian territory and in Oklahoma and Texas east of the one-hundredth meridian /by John Kunkel Small. .. 1903 New York: The author, 1903. url p. 500.
• Southern wild flowers and trees, together with shrubs, vines and various forms of growth found through the mountains, the middle district and the low country of the South, by Alice Lounsberry, with plates, vignettes and diagrams by Mrs. E. Rowan, with an introduction by C. D. Beadle. New York, Stokes[1901] url p. 569.
• The flora of Tennessee and a philosophy of botany: respectfully dedicated to the citizens of Tennessee / by Augustin Gattinger. Nashville: Press of Gospel Advocate Pub. Co., 1901. url p. 91.
• Torreya. Burlington, Vt., Torrey Botanical Club, 1901-1945. url p. 140.
• Hwang Shu-mei, Wei Chao-fen, Lu Ling-ti, Ku Tsue-chih &
• Hwang Shu-mei, eds., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 35(1): 1-406.
• Jin Shu-ying. 1995. Saxifragaceae (2) [Parnassioideae, Hydrangeoideae, Escallonioideae, Iteoideae, Ribesioideae]. In: Lu Ling-ti &
• Pan Jin-tang. 1992. Saxifragaceae (1) [Penthoroideae, Saxifragoideae]. In: Pan Jin-tang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 34(2): 1-309

Notes

Contributors

• The International Plant Names Index. Accessed Dec 27, 2011.

Identifiers

• Biodiversity Heritage Library NamebankID: 2788996
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 4032910

Footnotes

1. Jin-tang Pan, Cuizhi Gu, Shumei Huang, Chao-fen Wei, Shu-ying Jin, Lingdi Lu, Shinobu Akiyama, Crinan Alexander, Bruce Bartholomew, James Cullen, Richard J. Gornall, Ulla-Maj Hultgård, Hideaki Ohba & Douglas E. Soltis "Saxifragaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 8 Page 269. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]

©2004-2012 David Stang. All rights reserved.