Malpighiaceae

Nance Byrsonima crassifolia, copyright Reinaldo Aguilar.

Belongs within: Malpighiales.

The Malpighiaceae are a tropical group of small trees, shrubs and climbers whose flowers often bear oil-producing glands to attract pollinating bees.

Characters (from Neotropikey): Trees, treelets, shrubs, stem twisting lianas and climbers and occasionally herbs sprouting from a woody rootstock, plants with T-shaped and stellate trichomes and a variety of indumenta. Leaves opposite, with stipules, these fused in some genera and becoming intrapetiolar stipules, leaves often whorled distribution at the end of stems; leaf-blade entire, with large multicellular glands at the leaf-base or petiole. Inflorescences variable, from axillary fasicles to terminal racemes or panicles, often showy. Flowers 5-merous, hermaphrodite, subtly to strongly zygomorphic, calyx with 5 distinct sepals generally bearing two (rarely one) extra-floral nectaries, sometimes nectary missing from one sepal or completely; petals 5, free, aestivation imbricate, unguiculate at base, often with frilly edges, one larger 'flag' petal white, pink, magenta, yellow or orange, sometimes changing colour during anthesis; anthers 10; ovary superior, 3-locular, stigmas 3, separate. Fruit schizocarp with winged mericarps or drupaceous, sometimes fleshy and edible.

<==Malpighiaceae XR12
    |--Byrsonima [Byrsonimoideae] XR12
    |    |--B. coriacea SWK87
    |    |--B. crassifolia XR12
    |    |--B. lucida J87
    |    `--B. wadsworthii SWK87
    `--+--Acridocarpus XR12
       `--+--Thryallis XR12
          `--+--Dicella XR12
             `--Malpighia [Malpighioideae] DL07
                  |--M. coccigera Linnaeus 1753 CD07
                  |--M. macracantha J87
                  `--M. punicifolia F11

Malpighiaceae incertae sedis:
  Bannisterieae H03
    |--Banisteria D01
    |--Brachylophon H03
    `--Rhyssopterys timorensis H03, B00
  Microsteira YY22
  Gaudichaudioideae T00
  Stigmaphyllon J87
    |--S. angulosum J87
    `--S. emarginatum J87
  Tetrapterys citrifolia J87
  Bunchosia ekmanii J87
  Perisyncolporites pokornyi XR12
  Banisteriophyllum australiense Ettingshausen 1887 CBH93
  Eoglandulosa CBH93
  Tetrapteris CBH93
  Flabellaria Cav. 1790 KC01

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[B00] Braby, M. F. 2000. Butterflies of Australia: their identification, biology and distribution vol. 1. CSIRO Publishing: Collingwood (Victoria).

[CD07] Cantino, P. D., J. A. Doyle, S. W. Graham, W. S. Judd, R. G. Olmstead, D. E. Soltis, P. S. Soltis & M. J. Donoghue. 2007. Towards a phylogenetic nomenclature of Tracheophyta. Taxon 56 (3): E1–E44.

[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.

[DL07] Davis, C. C., M. Latvis, D. L. Nickrent, K. J. Wurdack & D. A. Baum. 2007. Floral gigantism in Rafflesiaceae. Science 315: 1812.

[D01] Doweld, A. B. 2001. The systematic relevance of fruit and seed structure in Bersama and Melianthus (Melianthaceae). Plant Systematics and Evolution 227: 75–103.

[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.

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

[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.

[KC01] Kirk, P. M., P. F. Cannon, J. C. David & J. A. Stalpers. 2001. Ainsworth & Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi 9^th ed. CAB International: Wallingford (UK).

[SWK87] Snyder, N. F. R., J. W. Wiley & C. B. Kepler. 1987. The Parrots of Luquillo: Natural history and conservation of the Puerto Rican parrot. Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology: Los Angeles.

[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.

[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.