Aspidospermeae

Flowers and fruit of tear-shrub Vallesia antillana, from here.

Belongs within: Apocynaceae.

The Aspidospermeae are a tribe within the family Apocynaceae that was defined by Sennblad & Bremer (2002) as the most inclusive clade including Aspidosperma and Vallesia but not the Alyxieae, Carisseae, Hunterieae, Melodineae, Plumerieae, Tabernaemontaneae, Vinceae, Willughbieae or Apocynoidina. Members of this clade include herbs, shrubs and trees; some of the latter in the genera Aspidosperma and Alstonia are commercial timber sources.

Synapomorphies (from Sennblad & Bremer 2002): Style heads simple, lacking both stigmatic hollow and upper hair wreath; fruits apocarpous.

<==Aspidospermeae [Alstonieae]
    |  i. s.: Geissospermum SB02
    |         Haplophyton SB02
    |         Microplumeria SB02
    |         Strempeliopsis SB02
    |--+--Vallesia antillana SB02
    |  `--Aspidosperma SB02
    |       |--A. gomezianum C55
    |       `--A. triternatum SB02
    `--Alstonia SB02
         |--A. angustifolia K03
         |--A. constricta H42
         |--A. muelleriana BH07
         |--A. scholaris SB02
         |--A. spatulata C78
         `--A. verticallosa H42

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BH07] Brock, P. D. & J. W. Hasenpusch. 2007. Studies on the Australian stick insects (Phasmida), including a checklist of species and bibliography. Zootaxa 1570: 1-81.

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 1. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[C78] Clunie, N. M. U. 1978. The vegetation. In Handbooks of the Flora of Papua New Guinea vol. 1 (J. S. Womersley, ed.) pp. 1-11. Melbourne University Press: Carlton South (Australia).

[H42] Hill, G. F. 1942. Termites (Isoptera) from the Australian Region (including Australia, New Guinea and islands south of the Equator between 140°E. longitude and 170°W. longitude). Commonwealth of Australia Council for Scientific and Industrial Research: Melbourne.

[K03] Kulip, J. 2003. An ethnobotanical survey of medicinal and other useful plants of Muruts in Sabah, Malaysia. Telopea 10 (1): 81-98.

[SB02] Sennblad, B., & B. Bremer. 2002. Classification of Apocynaceae s.l. according to a new approach combining Linnaean and phylogenetic taxonomy. Systematic Biology 51 (3): 389-409.