Hernandiaceae
Hernandiaceae | |
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Hernandia moerenhoutiana | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Magnoliids |
Order: | Laurales |
Family: | Hernandiaceae Blume[1] |
Genera | |
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The Hernandiaceae are a family of flowering plants (angiosperms) in the order Laurales. Consisting of five genera with about 58 known species,[2] they are distributed over the world's tropical areas, some of them widely distributed in coastal areas, but they occur from sea level to over 2000 m.
The family is closely related to the Lauraceae, and many species inhabit laurel forest habitat; they have laurel-like (lauroid) leaves. Based on morphology, chromosome numbers, geographical distribution, and phylogenetic analyses, the family is clearly divided into two groups that have been given the rank of subfamilies Gyrocarpoideae and Hernandioideae.
Overview
The Hernandiaceae are important components of
In general, there is a worldwide lack of knowledge about the family; little is yet known about its diversity. At a national level, in some countries with limited economic means, the majority of specimens are poorly determined or undetermined down to species. Recently-described species come from collections made in such countries. Trees of the family Hernandiaceae occur predominantly in the world's laurel forests and cloud forests, which occur in tropical, subtropical, and mild temperate regions of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, especially in the African, Indian and Pacific Ocean islands, New Caledonia, Madagascar, and central Chile.
The main economic uses for this family are
Description
The family consists of trees,
The primary vascular tissue is arranged in a cylinder, without separate bundles. Cortical bundles are absent. Medullary bundles are absent. Internal phloem is absent. Secondary thickening develops from a conventional cambial ring, but included phloem is absent. The xylem has libriform fibres. Vessel elements are without vestured pits and end-walls are simple. The wood parenchyma is paratracheal. Sieve-tube plastids are type I and of the P-type.
Taxonomy
The family has been recognised by most taxonomists. Gyrocarpus was considered in the Cronquist system to belong to a separate family, the Gyrocarpaceae.[3] The APG IV system (2016) recognizes this family, and assigns it to the order Laurales in the clade Magnoliids. As circumscribed by APG, the family includes Gyrocarpus that sometimes have been treated as forming the family Gyrocarpaceae.
Genera
Hernandiaceae |
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Ecology
The Hernandiaceae species inhabit ecosystems with
Some fruits open very violently, expelling the seeds at some distance. Others are small nuts or non-fleshy bodies (achenes) provided with hooks or filaments that attach to the fur of animals, or are shaped to float in water or to facilitate transport by wind.
They are distributed in the lower areas of the tropics, especially in rain forests, cloud forests, and laurel forest, although some species exist even in subtropical or arid areas; they occur from sea level to over 2000 m. The relict character of distributions in Africa and the Americas, for example, from Gyrocarpus hababensis and G. americanus, appear to be due to marine intrusions in the past.
The family originated in the coastal laurel forests of
Flowers and fruit
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The plants can have
The fruit in some species is not fleshy with carpel indehiscent, seem to be with wings or included in an bloomed envelope derived from connate bracteoles. The seed without endosperm has two cotyledons with the appearance of flesh, oil producing, soft). The embryo is straight.[3]
Uses
In Samoa some species are used in traditional herbal medicine for a variety of uses, and one type is a piscicide.[4]
Among the chemical compounds isolated from the family Hernandiaceae, the alkaloid corytuberine is the oldest known compound. Later, its derivative O,O-dimethylcorytuberine was reported from several Hernandia species, including H. nymphaeifolia. Actinodaphnine and hernandion, were the earliest chemical compounds reported from the family Hernandiaceae respectively.[4]
References
- hdl:10654/18083.
- .
- ^ a b c http://delta-intkey.com/angio/www/hernandi.htm The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Version: 3 May 2006. http://delta-intkey.com Archived 2007-01-03 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b An Overview of Family Hernandiaceae. Lakshmi et al., Rec. Nat. Prod. 3:1 (2009) 1-22.
External links
- Data related to Hernandiaceae at Wikispecies
- Media related to Hernandiaceae at Wikimedia Commons
- Hernandiaceae, Gyrocarpaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Version: 3 May 2006. http://delta-intkey.com Archived 2007-01-03 at the Wayback Machine.
- Hernandiaceae at the University of Hawaii
- NCBI Taxonomy Browser
- links at CSDL, Texas
- Vegetation of the Montane Region of Savai'i, W. Arthur Whistler.
- "The Families of Flowering Plants". L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz: Hernandiaceae [1]
- Lakshmi et al., Rec. Nat. Prod. 3:1 (2009) 1-22 [2]