Betulaceae

Stand of silver birch Betula pendula, copyright Percita.

Belongs within: Faganae.

The Betulaceae, birches and related taxa, is a group of deciduous trees and shrubs with pinnately-veined, sharp-toothed, simple leaves found mostly in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Flowers are borne in unisexual inflorescences with staminate flowers forming elongate, pendulous catkins.

Characters (from Flora of North America): Trees and shrubs, deciduous. Winter buds stipitate or sessile, with either 2–3 valvate scales (stipules) or few to many imbricate scales (or occasionally naked); terminal bud absent. Leaves alternate, spirally arranged, 2–3-ranked, simple; stipules deciduous, distinct; petioles present. Leaf blade sometimes lobed, pinnately veined, margins toothed, serrate to nearly entire; surfaces glabrous to tomentose, abaxially often with resinous glands. Inflorescences unisexual; staminate catkins pendulous, elongate, cylindric, conspicuously bracteate, consisting of crowded, reduced, 1–3-flowered clusters; pistillate inflorescences either of erect to pendulous bracteate catkins, or of compact 2--3-flowered clusters subtended by leafy involucres; bracts often nearly foliaceous or woody in infructescences. Staminate flowers bracteate; stamens (1–)4–6; anthers 2-locular, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, pollen sacs often more or less distinct; pistillode sometimes present. Pistillate flowers small, highly reduced; pistil 1, 2(–3)-carpellate; ovary inferior, usually 2-locular proximally, 1-locular distally; placentation axile; ovules 1–2 per locule, pendulous; styles 2, distinct or nearly so; stigmas dry; staminodes usually absent. Fruits nuts, nutlets, or 2-winged samaras, 1-seeded, without multibracteate cupule, often subtended or enclosed by foliaceous hull developed from 2–3 bracts; seed coat membranous; endosperm present, thin at maturity; embryo straight, as long as seed; cotyledons flat or greatly thickened, oily.

Betulaceae [Betulanae, Betuloideae]
    `--Betuleae CBH93
         |--Alnus CBH93
         |    |--A. acuminata F11
         |    |--A. arguta BT87
         |    |--A. glutinosa WM09
         |    |--A. hirsuta M03
         |    |    |--A. h. var. hirsuta A80
         |    |    `--A. h. var. sibirica A80
         |    |--A. incana HP-W05
         |    |--A. japonica [=A. maritima var. japonica] LO98
         |    |--A. jorullensis WO92
         |    |--A. maccoyi Ettingshausen 1886 F71
         |    |--A. maximowiezii M03
         |    |--A. nepalensis D07
         |    |--A. rhombifolia H93
         |    |--A. rubra PHK96
         |    |--A. rugosa JVHN90
         |    |--A. sinuata WM09 [=A. viridis ssp. sinuata H93]
         |    |--A. tenuifolia ZB01 [=A. incana ssp. tenuifolia H93]
         |    `--A. viridis HP-W05
         `--Betula WB03
              |--B. alba WEE70
              |--B. alleghaniensis BFD01
              |--B. ermanii WB03
              |--E. glandulosa RJ11
              |--B. lenta CS05
              |--B. lutea S96
              |--B. mandshurica S00
              |--B. maximowicziana LO98
              |--B. nana K02
              |--B. nigra CB06
              |--B. occidentalis Z83
              |--B. papyrifera JVHN90
              |--B. pendula BS01
              |--B. platyphylla LO98
              |    |--B. p. var. platyphylla LO98
              |    `--B. p. var. japonica LO98
              |--B. populifolia JVHN90
              |--B. pubescens W01
              `--B. utilis O88

Betulaceae incertae sedis:
  Ostryopsis YY22
  Ostrya YY22
    |--O. carpinifolia SM08
    `--O. virginiana H03
  Carpinus SP04
    |--C. betulus SM08 [incl. C. caucasica SP04]
    |--C. caroliniana V72
    |--C. orientalis G98
    `--C. tschonoskii [incl. C. laxiflora] LO98
  Betuloxylon oligocenicum Kaiser 1880 CBH93
  Coryloxylon nemejcii Prakash et al. 1971 CBH93
  Alnipollenites CBH93
    |--A. eminens Miki 1977 CBH93
    |--A. trina (Stanley) Norton in Norton & Hall 1969 YB02
    `--A. verus (Potonié) Potonié 1960 YB02
  Betulaceoipollenites Jarzen & Norris 1975 CBH93

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

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[G98] Gruber, J. 1998. Beiträge zur Systematik der Gattung Dicranolasma (Arachnida: Opiliones, Dicranolasmatidae). I. Dicranolasma thracium Staręga und verwandte Formen aus Südosteuropa und Südwestasien. Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museum in Wien. Serie B. Botanik und Zoologie 100: 489–537.

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[O88] Ohba, H. 1988. The alpine flora of the Nepal Himalayas: an introductory note. In: Ohba, H., & S. B. Malla (eds) The Himalayan Plants vol. 1. The University Museum, University of Tokyo, Bulletin 31: 19–46.

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[SP04] Schneeweiss, G. M., T. Palomeque, A. l. E. Colwell & H. Weiss-Schneeweiss. 2004. Chromosome numbers and karyotype evolution in holoparasitic Orobanche (Orobanchaceae) and related genera. American Journal of Botany 91 (3): 439–448.

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[ZB01] Zhang, N., & M. Blackwell. 2001. Molecular phylogeny of dogwood anthracnose fungus (Discula destructiva) and the Diaporthales. Mycologia 93 (2): 355–365.

[Z83] Zink, R. M. 1983. Evolutionary and systematic significance of temporal variation in the fox sparrow. Systematic Zoology 32 (3): 223–238.

Last updated: 5 September 2020.