Actinidiaceae

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Actinidiaceae
Actinidia deliciosa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Ericales
Family: Actinidiaceae
Gilg & Werderm.[1]
Type genus
Actinidia
Genera

The Actinidiaceae are a small family of flowering plants. The family has three genera and about 360 species and is a member of the order Ericales.[2]

Distribution

They are temperate and subtropical woody vines, shrubs, and trees, native to Asia (Actinidia or kiwifruit, Clematoclethra, and Saurauia) and Central America and South America (Saurauia only). Saurauia, with its 300 species, is the largest genus in this family. Although now confined to Asia and tropical Central and South America, evidence indicates in the past the family had a wider distribution. The now extinct genus Parasaurauia is thought to have belonged to the Actinidiaceae and lived in North America during the early Campanian.[3]

Characteristics

The plants are usually small trees or shrubs, or sometimes vines (Actinidia). The alternate, simple, spiral leaves have serrated or entire margins. They lack stipules or are minutely stipulated. They are often beset with rather flattened bristles.

The

cymes, with free sepals and petals. Except for members of the genus Clematoclethra which have 10 stamens, the stamens are numerous and originally attached at the back.[3] They invert just before the flower starts expanding, so their bases become apical
.

The plants may be

monoecious, or hermaphroditic. The fruit is usually a berry
, such as the edible kiwifruit, a cultivar from the genus Actinidia.

Evidence supporting placement within the Ericales

Before genetic evidence appeared in the last 10 years, the placement of the Actinidiaceae within the Ericales was highly controversial. The

Roridulaceae. Further genetic evidence points to the Actinidiaceae being sister to the Roridulaceae, with the Roridulaceae and Sarraceniaceae, forming another, smaller, monophyletic group.[5]

Evidence supporting monophyly of the Actinidiaceae

What genera were to be placed in the Actinidiaceae before recent genetic and micromorphological studies emerged was highly controversial. Before recent evidence, the genus

circumscribed in the Actinidiaceae, Clematoclethra, Saurauia, and Actinidia, do indeed form a monophyletic group.[6][7]

References

  1. hdl:10654/18083
    . Retrieved 2013-07-06.
  2. PMID 21665668
    .
  3. ^
    doi:10.1002/j.1537-2197.1996.tb12733.x
    .
  4. JSTOR 2992015
    .
  5. S2CID 35461118
    .
  6. JSTOR 3093880.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2024 (link
    )
  7. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2005.00372.x
    .

External links
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