Aurantioideae is a subfamily within the rue and citrus family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 (Rutaceae

Rutaceae

Rutaceae, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, is a family of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents...

). The subfamily's center of diversity is in the monsoon

Monsoon

Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...

 region of eastern Australasia

Australasia

Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...

, extending west through South Asia

South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries to the west and the east...

 into Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, and eastwards into Polynesia

Polynesia

Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of over 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians and they share many similar traits including language, culture and beliefs...

.

Notable members are, for example, the Bael

Bael

Bael Bael (Aegle marmelos) Bael (Aegle marmelos) (Bengal quince, stone apple, Sanskrit : विल्व, Malayalam: കൂവളം, Bengali: বেল, Hindi: बेल (Sirphal), Marathi: बेल or कवीठ (Kaveeth), , Sindhi: ڪاٺ گدرو , Sinhalese: beli, Tamil: வில்வம் is a species of tree native to India...

 (Aegle marmelos), citrus

Citrus

Citrus is a common term and genus of flowering plants in the rue family, Rutaceae. Citrus is believed to have originated in the part of Southeast Asia bordered by Northeastern India, Myanmar and the Yunnan province of China...

 (Citrus), Clausena

Clausena

Clausena is a genus of evergreen plant in the subfamily Aurantioideae within the family Rutaceae, native to Asia and Australia. It was first defined by N.L. Birman in 1768. The type species is Clausena excavata....

and Curd Fruit (Limonia acidissima) trees which bear edible fruit, or the genus Murraya

Murraya

The genus Murraya comprises 12 species in the family Rutaceae, including the Curry Tree. This genus, along with genera Clausena and Glycosmis within the same family, are a major source of carbazole alkaloids. Parts of these trees are used in folk medicine and the leaves of M. koenigii are and...

which includes the spicy

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

 Curry Tree

Curry Tree

The curry tree is a tropical to sub-tropical tree in the family Rutaceae, which is native to India...

 (M. koenigii) and the ornamental Orange Jessamine (M. paniculata).

Description and systematics

Aurantioideae are smallish tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

s, large shrub

Shrub

A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...

s or (rarely) liana

Liana

A liana is any of various long-stemmed, woody vines that are rooted in the soil at ground level and use trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy to get access to well-lit areas of the forest. Lianas are especially characteristic of tropical moist deciduous...

s. Their flowers are typically white and fragrant; their fruit are very characteristic hesperidia

Hesperidium

A hesperidium is a modified fruit with a tough, leathery rind. The peel contains volatile oil glands in pits. The fleshy interior is composed of separate sections, called carpels, filled with fluid-filled vesicles that are actually specialized hair cells.The outer ovary wall becomes the thick...

, usually of rounded shape and colored in green, yellowish or orange hues.

The subfamily can be divided into two tribe

Tribe (biology)

In biology, a tribe is a taxonomic rank between family and genus. It is sometimes subdivided into subtribes.Some examples include the tribes: Canini, Acalypheae, Hominini, Bombini, and Antidesmeae.-See also:* Biological classification* Rank...

s, the ancestral Clauseneae and the more advanced Citreae

Citreae

Citreae is a tribe of the flowering plant family Rutaceae, subfamily Aurantioideae. Notable species include Bergamot orange, calamondin, citron, grapefruit, lemon, lime, orange, pummelo, tangelo, and tangerine, all of which are in the genus Citrus....

. Several genera

Genera

Genera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...

 have been recently reassigned from the latter to the former, but the arrangement of subtribes leaves much to be desired. The tribes, with subtribes listed in phylogenetic sequence and genera listed alphabetically, are: