Celastraceae

Hard log mayten Maytenus magellanicus, copyright Scott Zona.

Belongs within: Celastrales.
Contains: Euonymus.

The Celastraceae are a primarily pantropical family of trees, shrubs and lianas. Synapomorphies of the family as recognised here (including the Elaeodendroideae and Brexia) are cymose inflorescences, dorsifixed anthers and connate styles. Members of the genera Euonymus and Celastrus have been widely grown as ornamentals. Brexia madagascarensis is a small tree with entire or spinose-dentate leaves found in Madagascar and coastal east Africa whose phylogenetic position has been contentious in the past, with various authors placing it close to Saxifragales or Hydrangeales. Members of the Elaeodendroideae are characterised by bisexual, pentamerous families, usually with an extrastaminal disc and three stamens, and transversely flattened, deeply lobed capsules.

<==Celastraceae [Brexiaceae, Brexiales, Hippocrateaceae]
    |--+--+--Paxistima myrsinites XR12, H93
    |  |  `--Euonymus XR12
    |  `--+--Triptrygium [Tripterygioideae] XR12
    |     `--Celastrus [Celastroideae] XR12
    |          |--C. cunninghamii C08
    |          |--C. minutus HL08
    |          |--C. orbiculatus TE00
    |          |--C. paniculatus SR07
    |          |--C. praeeuropaeus Ettingshausen 1886 F71
    |          |--C. scandens XR12
    |          `--C. subspicata B00
    `--+--Maytenus XR12
       |    |--M. arbutifolia XR12
       |    |--M. cunninghamii LK14
       |    |--M. cupularis Ding Hou 1962 JW03
       |    |--M. ferdinandi LK14
       |    |--M. heterophylla K02
       |    |--M. hotteana J87
       |    |--M. magellanica D03
       |    |--M. mossambicensis K02
       |    |--M. rigida BV09
       |    `--M. senegalensis XR12
       `--+--Plagiopteron XR12
          `--+--Brexia [Brexiaceae, Brexiales] XR12
             |    `--B. madagascarensis WM09
             `--Elaeodendroideae [Hippocrateae, Hippocrateoideae] T00
                  |--Hippocratea volubilis CBH93
                  |--Polyadopollenites macroreticulatus Salard-Cheboldaeff 1973 CBH93
                  `--Elaeodendron XR12
                       |--E. australe BW85
                       |--E. buchananii TO95
                       |--E. carnosum Turcz. 1863 (n. d.) A61
                       |--E. melanocarpum LK14
                       |--E. novae-zelandiae Turcz. 1863 (n. d.) A61
                       |--E. orientale XR12
                       `--E. punctulatum Turcz. 1863 (n. d.) A61

Celastraceae incertae sedis:
  Acanthothamnus T00
  Canotia T00
  Putterlickia verrucosa GS03
  Salacia LK14
    |--S. chinensis LK14
    |--S. disepala B00
    `--S. forsteniana H03
  Menepetalum YY22
  Gyminda YY22
  Lauridia YY22
  Peripterygia YY22
  Tetrasiphon YY22
  Cassine aethiopica K02
  Gymnosporia JW03
    |--*G. montana JW03
    |--G. curtisii King 1896 [=Maytenus curtisii (King) Ding Hou 1962] JW03
    |--G. diversifolia Maximowicz 1881 (see below for synonymy) JW03
    |--G. emarginata (Willdenow) Thwaites 1864 (see below for synonymy) JW03
    |--G. inermis Merrill & Perry 1939 JW03
    |--G. littoralis (Backer) Jordaan in Jordaan & van Wyk 2003 (see below for synonymy) JW03
    |--G. nitida Merrill 1914 [=Maytenus crassa Ding Hou 1962] JW03
    |--‘Maytenus’ rapakir Loesener 1936 JW03
    |--G. spinosa (Blanco) Merrill & Rolfe 1908 [=Cupania spinosa Blanco 1837] JW03
    |    |--G. s. var. spinosa JW03
    |    `--G. s. var. parva Merrill & Rolfe 1908 [incl. G. philippinensis Vidal 1885 (n. n.)] JW03
    `--G. vitiensis JW03
  Microtropis YY22
  Perrottetia YY22
  Plenckia YY22
  Phocea YY22
  Otherodendron YY22
  Rhacoma disticha YY22, D03
  Psammomoya choretroides G04
  Pterocelastrus echinatus K02
  Torralbasia cuneifolia J87
  Nicobariodendron APG16
  Mortonia utahensis H93
  Sugoia opposita Samylina 1976 CBH93
  Peritassa CBH93
  Campylostemon CBH93
  Triporotetradites campylostemonoides Salard-Cheboldaeff 1974 CBH93
  Tetracolporites ixerboides Couper 1960 CBH93
  Celastrinanthium P92

Gymnosporia diversifolia Maximowicz 1881 [=Celastrus diversifolia (Maximowicz) Hemsley 1886, Maytenus diversifolia (Maximowicz) Ding Hou 1962; incl. C. buxifolia var. subdidymocarpus Kuntze 1891] JW03

Gymnosporia emarginata (Willdenow) Thwaites 1864 [=Celastrus emarginatus Willdenow 1798, Catha emarginata (Willdenow) Don 1832, Maytenus emarginata (Willdenow) Ramamurthy 1983] JW03

Gymnosporia littoralis (Backer) Jordaan in Jordaan & van Wyk 2003 [=G. montana var. littoralis Backer 1908] JW03

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[A61] Allan, H. H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand vol. 1. Indigenous Tracheophyta: Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledones. R. E. Owen, Government Printer: Wellington (New Zealand).

[APG16] Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. 2016. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 181: 1–20.

[BW85] Bellamy, C. L., & G. A. Williams. 1985. A revision of the genus Maoraxia with a new synonym in Acmaeodera (Coleoptera: Buprestidae). International Journal of Entomology 27 (1–2): 147–161.

[B00] Braby, M. F. 2000. Butterflies of Australia: their identification, biology and distribution vol. 2. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood (Victoria).

[C08] Cambage, R. H. 1908. Notes on the native flora of New South Wales. Part VI. Deepwater to Torrington and Emmaville. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 33 (1): 45–65, pls 1–2.

[CBH93] Collinson, M. E., M. C. Boulter & P. L. Holmes. 1993. Magnoliophyta (‘Angiospermae’). In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 809–841. Chapman & Hall: London.

[D03] Dusén, P. 1903. The vegetation of western Patagonia. In: Scott, W. B. (ed.) Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896–1899 vol. 8. Botany pp. 1–34. The University: Princeton (New Jersey).

[F71] Fletcher, H. O. 1971. Catalogue of type specimens of fossils in the Australian Museum, Sydney. Australian Museum Memoir 13: 1–167.

[G04] Gibson, N. 2004. Flora and vegetation of the Eastern Goldfields Ranges: part 7. Middle and South Ironcap, Digger Rock and Hatter Hill. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 87 (2): 49–62.

[GS03] Groth, I., B. Schütze, T. Boettcher, C. B. Pullen, C. Rodriguez, E. Leistner & M. Goodfellow. 2003. Kitasatospora putterlickiae sp. nov., isolated from rhizosphere soil, transfer of Streptomyces kifunensis to the genus Kitasatospora as Kitasatospora kifunensis comb. nov., and emended description of Streptomyces aureofaciens Duggar 1948. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 53: 2033–2040.

[H03] Heads, M. 2003. Ericaceae in Malesia: vicariance biogeography, terrane tectonics and ecology. Telopea 10 (1): 311–449.

[HL08] Henniger, M., & R. Leder. 2008. Eozäne Makroflora der Querfurter Mulde. Mauritiana 20 (2): 229–251.

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).

[JW03] Jordaan, M., & A. E. van Wyk. 2003. Reinstatement of Gymnosporia (Celastraceae): implications for the Flora Malesiana region. Telopea 10 (1): 155–167.

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum—Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1–136.

[K02] Krüger, M. 2002. Revision of the Afrotropical Ennominae of the Drepanogynis group IV: the genus Drepanogynis Guenée (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). Transvaal Museum Monograph 13: 1–220.

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[P92] Poinar, G. O., Jr. 1992. Life in Amber. Stanford University Press: Stanford.

[SR07] Sankar, R. V., K. Ravikumar, N. M. Ganesh Babu & D. K. Ved. 2007. Botany of Anapady MPCA, Palghat district, Kerala with special emphasis on species of conservation concern. Bulletin of the Botanical Survey of India 49: 165–172.

[T00] Thorne, R. F. 2000. The classification and geography of the flowering plants: dicotyledons of the class Angiospermae (subclasses Magnoliidae, Ranunculidae, Caryophyllidae, Dilleniidae, Rosidae, Asteridae, and Lamiidae). The Botanical Review 66: 441–647.

[TE00] Tibbetts, T. J., & F. W. Ewers. 2000. Root pressure and specific conductivity in temperate lianas: exotic Celastrus orbiculatus (Celastraceae) vs. native Vitis riparia (Vitaceae). American Journal of Botany 87: 1272–1278.

[TO95] Tsujino, Y., J. I. J. Ogoche, H. Tazaki, T. Fujimori & K. Mori. 1995. Buchaninoside, a steroidal glycoside from Elaeodendron buchananii. Phytochemistry 40: 753–756.

[WM09] Wang, H., M. J. Moore, P. S. Soltis, C. D. Bell, S. F. Brockington, R. Alexandre, C. C. Davis, M. Latvis, S. R. Manchester & D. E. Soltis. 2009. Rosid radiation and the rapid rise of angiosperm-dominated forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106 (10): 3853–3858.

[XR12] Xi, Z., B. R. Ruhfel, H. Schaefer, A. M. Amorim, M. Sugumaran, K. J. Wurdack, P. K. Endress, M. L. Matthews, P. F. Stevens, S. Mathews & C. C. Davis. 2012. Phylogenomics and a posteriori data partitioning resolve the Cretaceous angiosperm radiation Malpighiales. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 109 (43): 17519–17524.

[YY22] Yampolsky, C., & H. Yampolsky. 1922. Distribution of sex forms in the phanerogamic flora. Bibliotheca Genetica 3: 1–62.

Last updated: 31 March 2021.