Lecythidaceae

Fish poison tree Barringtonia asiatica, copyright Joel Abroad.

Belongs within: Ericales.

The Lecythidaceae are a pantropical group of flowering trees and shrubs with showy flowers. Members include the Old World tropical genus Barringtonia, of which the fish poison tree B. asiatica is grown as an ornamental shade tree while its seeds are used to prepare fish poison.

Characters (from Flora of China): Trees or shrubs, evergreen. Leaves alternate, usually crowded toward apices of branchlets, shortly petiolate; stipules usually absent; leaf blade simple. Flowers showy, borne in short, bracteate racemes or spikes, actinomorphic or zygomorphic, bisexual. Calyx with a campanulate tube adnate to ovary; lobes 4-6, thick. Petals 4-6, free, rarely absent. Stamens many, united at base into several whorls, often several sterile, either monadelphous and equally arranged around disk, or diadelphous in 2 unequal bundles, outermost staminodial; anthers basifixed, 2-celled, opening by longitudinal slits. Disk sometimes lobed. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, 2-6-loculed; ovules 1 to many per locule; placentation axile; style terminal, simple; stigma capitate. Fruit an indehiscent berry or operculate capsule, often crowned by persistent calyx lobes. Seed(s) 1 to many; endosperm absent.

<==Lecythidaceae [Lecythidineae]
    |--Foetidia [Foetidioideae] T00
    |--Asteranthos [Asteranthoideae, Scytopetaloideae] T00
    |--Lecythis DL99 [Lecythidoideae T00]
    |    `--L. ampla DL99
    |--Napoleonoideae T00
    |    |--Crateranthus T00
    |    `--Napoleonaea K01
    `--Barringtonioideae [Planchonioideae] T00
         |--Planchonia LK14
         |    |--P. careya LK14
         |    |--P. papuana C78
         |    `--P. rupestris LK14
         `--Barringtonia CW92
              |--B. acutangula LK14
              |--B. asiatica P88
              |--B. calyptrata CW92
              |--B. conoidea P88
              |--B. luzoniensis BMM99
              |--B. racemosa SB12
              |--B. speciosa YZ02
              `--B. yunnanensis BMM99

Lecythidaceae incertae sedis:
  Careya S02
    |--C. arborea S02
    `--C. australis B88
  Gustavia superba MM96
  Eschweilera Martius ex DC. 1828 S62
    `--E. odorata F11
  Couratari scottmorii C09
  Couroupita guianensis W09
  Barringtonioxylon deccanense Shallom 1960 CBH93
  Lecythidospermum CBH93
  Marginipollis concinnus CBH93

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B88] Bouček, Z. 1988. Australasian Chalcidoidea (Hymenoptera): A biosystematic revision of genera of fourteen families, with a reclassification of species. CAB International: Wallingford (UK).

[BMM99] Braun, U., J. Mouchacca & E. H. C. McKenzie. 1999. Cercosporoid hyphomycetes from New Caledonia and some other South Pacific islands. New Zealand Journal of Botany 37: 297–327.

[CW92] Cassis, G., & T. A. Weir. 1992. Rutelinae. In: Houston, W. W. K. (ed.) Zoological Catalogue of Australia vol. 9. Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea pp. 359–382. AGPS Press: Canberra.

[C09] Chaverri, L. G. 2009. Culicidae (mosquitos, zancudos). In: Brown, B. V., A. Borkent, J. M. Cumming, D. M. Wood, N. E. Woodley & M. A. Zumbado (eds) Manual of Central American Diptera vol. 1 pp. 369–388. NRC Research Press: Ottawa.

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

[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.

[DL99] Dyer, L. A., & D. K. Letourneau. 1999. Relative strengths of top-down and bottom-up forces in a tropical forest community. Oecologia 119: 265–274.

[F11] Fraga, R. M. 2011. Family Icteridae (New World blackbirds). In: Hoyo, J. del, A. Elliott & D. A. Christie (eds) Handbook of the Birds of the World vol. 16. Tanagers to New World Blackbirds pp. 684–807. Lynx Edicions: Barcelona.

[K01] Kårehed, J. 2001. Multiple origin of the tropical forest tree family Icacinaceae. American Journal of Botany 88 (12): 2259–2274.

[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.

[MM96] Mound, L. A., & R. Marullo. 1996. The thrips of Central and South America: an introduction (Insecta: Thysanoptera). Memoirs on Entomology, International 6: 1–487.

[P88] Polunin, I. 1988. Plants and Flowers of Malaysia. Times Editions: Singapore.

[S02] Santharam, V. 2002. Fruit and nectar resources in a moist deciduous forest and their use by birds—a preliminary report. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 99 (3): 537–543.

[SB12] Smith, M. J., C. R. J. Boland, D. Maple & B. Tiernan. 2012. The Christmas Island blue-tailed skink (Cryptoblepharus egeriae): a survey protocol and an assessment of factors that relate to occupancy and detection. Records of the Western Australian Museum 27 (1): 40–44.

[S62] Stone, B. C. 1962. Boerlagiodendron (Araliaceae) in eastern Melanesia. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 75: 25-32.

[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.

[W09] Woodley, N. E. 2009. Stratiomyidae (soldier flies). In: Brown, B. V., A. Borkent, J. M. Cumming, D. M. Wood, N. E. Woodley & M. A. Zumbado (eds) Manual of Central American Diptera vol. 1 pp. 521–549. NRC Research Press: Ottawa.

[YZ02] Yahya, H. S. A., & A. A. Zarri. 2002. Status, ecology and behaviour of Narcondam hornbill (Aceros narcondami) in Narcondam Island, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 99 (3): 434–445.

Last updated: 6 May 2021.