Didiereaceae

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Didiereaceae
Alluaudia montagnacii
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Didiereaceae
Radlk.[1]
Subfamilies

Didiereaceae is a family of flowering plants found in continental Africa and Madagascar. It contains 20 species classified in three subfamilies and six genera. Species of the family are

spiny thickets
.

Systematics

The family was long considered entirely endemic to Madagascar until the genera Calyptrotheca,

Molecular phylogenetic analysis confirmed the monophyly of the family and its three subfamilies:[3]

Didiereaceae
Portulacarioideae

Portulacaria

Calyptrothecoideae

Calyptrotheca

Didiereoideae

The family is closely related to the New World family Cactaceae (cacti), sufficiently closely so that species of Didiereaceae can be grafted successfully on some cacti.[3]

Calyptrothecoideae

Contains only one genus, Calyptrotheca, with two species found in tropical East Africa.[3]

Didiereoideae

This subfamily is endemic to Madagascar, where it is found in the

tepals with two basal bracts. Flowers rarely occur singly. They usually develop in branched clusters that emerge instead of leaves from the brachyblasts.[4]

There are four genera with eleven species:

Alluaudia (Drake) Drake 1903

Alluaudiopsis Humbert & Choux 1934

Decarya Choux 1929

Didierea Baillon 1880

Key to the genera of Didieroideae:

1 Spines in groups of four or more: Didierea
- Spines single or in pairs: → 2
2 Shoots striking zigzagged, spines short conical: Decarya
- Shoots not zigzagged, spines long conical to needle-like: → 3
3 Shrubs strongly branched, leaves lanceolate: Alluaudiopsis
- Shrubs little branched, leaves either ovate to circular or scale-like and awl-shaped: Alluaudia

Portulacarioideae

Contains one genus,

Ceraria are now included in Portulacaria.[3]

Gallery

References

  1. hdl:10654/18083
    .
  2. ISSN 1280-8571. Open access icon
  3. ^
    ISSN 0040-0262
    .
  4. ^ a b Rauh, W. 1983. The morphology and systematic position of the Didiereaceae of Madagascar. Bothalia 14(3/4): 839–843.
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