Cardiopteridaceae
Encyclopedia
Cardiopteridaceae is a eudicot family
of flowering plant
s. It consists of about 43 species
of tree
s, shrub
s, and woody
vine
s, mostly of the tropics
, but with a few in temperate regions. It contains six genera
, the largest of which is Citronella
, with 21 species. The other genera are much smaller.
Citronella mucronata
is grown as an ornamental
for its attractively shiny leaves and fragrant flowers. A tea
is made from the leaves of Citronella gongonha which is similar to yerba maté
.
The APG III classification (2009)
places them in the order Aquifoliales
. This order consists of Cardiopteridaceae, its sister family, Stemonuraceae, and the three monogeneric families Phyllonomaceae
, Helwingiaceae, and Aquifoliaceae.
in 1847 when he described the species Cardiopteris moluccana. Blume based his new family on Cardiopteris, a name
that had previously been used by John Royle
and Nathaniel Wallich
, but not validly published. In 1843, Justus Hasskarl had published the name Peripterygium quinqueloba for what is now Cardiopteris quinqueloba. Blume indicated his awareness of Hasskarl's plant and included it as another species of Cardiopteris when he published Cardiopteris moluccana.
A complex nomenclatural
dispute ensued and lasted well into the twentieth century. Because the basionym
, Cardiopteris, was in question, the corresponding family name Cardiopteridaceae was in question as well. The ICBN finally conserved
the name Cardiopteris against Peripterygium.
considered it to be monogeneric in his treatment
of the family for Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien in 1942. John Hutchinson
did likewise in 1973.
In 2001, Icacinaceae was shown to be polyphyletic. It has since been divided into five segregate
families: Cardiopteridaceae, Stemonuraceae, Pennantiaceae, Metteniusaceae, and Icacinaceae
sensu stricto. Icacinaceae sensu stricto will eventually be divided further.
In the 2001 study of Icacinaceae, Kårehed transferred Citronella, Gonocaryum, and Leptaulus from Icacinaceae to Cardiopteridaceae. He also provisionally placed Metteniusa, Dendrobangia, and Pseudobotrys there as well, until further studies could give some firm indication of their true relationships.
In 2007, a molecular phylogenetic study showed that Metteniusa belongs to a group of asterids
known as the lamiids. The order Aquifoliales, which includes Cardiopteridaceae, belongs to another asterid group called campanulids.
The inclusion of Pseudobotrys in Cardiopteridaceae remains doubtful. DNA sequences submitted to GenBank in 2009 indicate that Dendrobangia does not belong in Cardiopteridaceae and is more closely related to genera like Apodytes.
Cardiopteridaceae, sensu
Kårehed, is rather diverse
in spite of having only six genera. Because of the distinctive structure
of Cardiopteris, some authors today, continue to put Cardiopteris in a family by itself. The other five genera are then placed in Leptaulaceae, a family created by Philippe van Tieghem in 1897. The monophyly
of Leptaulaceae has never been tested by phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence
s.
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...
of flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s. It consists of about 43 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
of 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, 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, and woody
Woody plant
A woody plant is a plant that uses wood as its structural tissue. These are typically perennial plants whose stems and larger roots are reinforced with wood produced adjacent to the vascular tissues. The main stem, larger branches, and roots of these plants are usually covered by a layer of...
vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
s, mostly of the tropics
Tropics
The tropics is a region of the Earth surrounding the Equator. It is limited in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the northern hemisphere at approximately N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere at S; these latitudes correspond to the axial tilt of the Earth...
, but with a few in temperate regions. It contains six 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...
, the largest of which is Citronella
Citronella
Citronella is a word used for several things, including:* Citronella , a genus of trees and shrubs in the Cardiopteridaceae* Citronella oil, an insect-repelling essential oil derived from Cymbopogon...
, with 21 species. The other genera are much smaller.
Citronella mucronata
Citronella mucronata
Citronella mucronata, the Huillipatagua or Chilean citronella tree, is an evergreen tree native to Chile, it occurs from 30 to 41° south latitude. Growing up to 1400 m a.s.l. It is frequently found on moist sites....
is grown as an ornamental
Ornamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
for its attractively shiny leaves and fragrant flowers. A tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
is made from the leaves of Citronella gongonha which is similar to yerba maté
Yerba mate
Maté, yerba maté or erva maté , Ilex paraguariensis, is a species of holly native to subtropical South America in northeastern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay...
.
The APG III classification (2009)
APG II system
The APG II system of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in April 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. It was a revision of the first APG system, published in 1998, and was superseded in 2009...
places them in the order Aquifoliales
Aquifoliales
The Aquifoliales are an order of flowering plants, including most notably the Aquifoliaceae, or holly family, and also the Helwingiaceae and the Phyllonomaceae . In 2001, the families Stemonuraceae and Cardiopteridaceae were added to this order...
. This order consists of Cardiopteridaceae, its sister family, Stemonuraceae, and the three monogeneric families Phyllonomaceae
Phyllonomaceae
The family Phyllonomaceae is a family of dicotyledons, consisting of 4 species of trees and shrubs in the genus Phyllonoma. They are native to Central America ....
, Helwingiaceae, and Aquifoliaceae.
The Family Name
The family Cardiopteridaceae was established by Carl Ludwig BlumeCarl Ludwig Blume
Charles Ludwig de Blume or Karl Ludwig von Blume was a German-Dutch botanist.He was born at Braunschweig in Germany, but studied at Leiden University and spent his professional life working in the Dutch East Indies and in the Netherlands, where he was Director of the Rijksherbarium at Leiden...
in 1847 when he described the species Cardiopteris moluccana. Blume based his new family on Cardiopteris, a name
Botanical name
A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar and/or Group epithets must conform to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants...
that had previously been used by John Royle
John Forbes Royle
John Forbes Royle , British botanist and teacher of materia medica, was born in Kanpur in 1799. Entering the service of the East India Company as assistant surgeon, he devoted himself to studying botany and geology, and made large collections among the Himalaya Mountains...
and Nathaniel Wallich
Nathaniel Wallich
Nathaniel Wallich was a surgeon and botanist of Danish origin who worked in India initially in the Danish settlement near Calcutta and later joined the East India Company...
, but not validly published. In 1843, Justus Hasskarl had published the name Peripterygium quinqueloba for what is now Cardiopteris quinqueloba. Blume indicated his awareness of Hasskarl's plant and included it as another species of Cardiopteris when he published Cardiopteris moluccana.
A complex nomenclatural
Plant taxonomy
Plant taxonomy is the science that finds, describes, classifies, identifies, and names plants. It thus is one of the main branches of taxonomy.Plant taxonomy is closely allied to plant systematics, and there is no sharp boundary between the two...
dispute ensued and lasted well into the twentieth century. Because the basionym
Basionym
Basionym is a term used in botany, regulated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature...
, Cardiopteris, was in question, the corresponding family name Cardiopteridaceae was in question as well. The ICBN finally conserved
Conserved name
A conserved name or nomen conservandum is a scientific name that has specific nomenclatural protection. Nomen conservandum is a Latin term, meaning a "name which should be conserved"...
the name Cardiopteris against Peripterygium.
Circumscription
Prior to the seminal study by Kårehed in 2001, Cardiopteridaceae had consisted of only Cardiopteris. For example, Hermann SleumerHermann Otto Sleumer
Hermann Otto Sleumer was a Dutch botanist of German birth. The plant genera Sleumerodendron Virot and Sleumeria Utteridge, Nagam. & Teo , are named for him....
considered it to be monogeneric in his treatment
Treatise
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.-Noteworthy treatises:...
of the family for Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien in 1942. John Hutchinson
John Hutchinson (botanist)
John Hutchinson, OBE, FRS was a renowned English botanist, taxonomist and author.-Life and career:...
did likewise in 1973.
In 2001, Icacinaceae was shown to be polyphyletic. It has since been divided into five segregate
Segregate (taxonomy)
In taxonomy, a segregate, or a segregate taxon is created when a taxon is split off, from another taxon. This other taxon will be better known, usually bigger, and will continue to exist, even after the segregate taxon has been split off...
families: Cardiopteridaceae, Stemonuraceae, Pennantiaceae, Metteniusaceae, and Icacinaceae
Icacinaceae
Icacinaceae is a family of flowering plants.It consists of trees, shrubs, and lianas, primarily of the tropics.The family was traditionally circumscribed quite broadly, with around 55 genera totalling over 400 species...
sensu stricto. Icacinaceae sensu stricto will eventually be divided further.
In the 2001 study of Icacinaceae, Kårehed transferred Citronella, Gonocaryum, and Leptaulus from Icacinaceae to Cardiopteridaceae. He also provisionally placed Metteniusa, Dendrobangia, and Pseudobotrys there as well, until further studies could give some firm indication of their true relationships.
In 2007, a molecular phylogenetic study showed that Metteniusa belongs to a group of asterids
Asterids
In the APG II system for the classification of flowering plants, the name asterids refers to a clade .Most of the taxa belonging to this clade had been referred to the Asteridae in the Cronquist system and to the Sympetalae in earlier systems...
known as the lamiids. The order Aquifoliales, which includes Cardiopteridaceae, belongs to another asterid group called campanulids.
The inclusion of Pseudobotrys in Cardiopteridaceae remains doubtful. DNA sequences submitted to GenBank in 2009 indicate that Dendrobangia does not belong in Cardiopteridaceae and is more closely related to genera like Apodytes.
Cardiopteridaceae, sensu
Sensu
Sensu is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of".It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used, but it also appears in expressions that indicate the convention or context of the usage.-Sensu and...
Kårehed, is rather diverse
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
in spite of having only six genera. Because of the distinctive structure
Plant morphology
Plant morphology or phytomorphology is the study of the physical form and external structure of plants. This is usually considered distinct from plant anatomy, which is the study of the internal structure of plants, especially at the microscopic level...
of Cardiopteris, some authors today, continue to put Cardiopteris in a family by itself. The other five genera are then placed in Leptaulaceae, a family created by Philippe van Tieghem in 1897. The monophyly
Monophyly
In common cladistic usage, a monophyletic group is a taxon which forms a clade, meaning that it contains all the descendants of the possibly hypothetical closest common ancestor of the members of the group. The term is synonymous with the uncommon term holophyly...
of Leptaulaceae has never been tested by phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequence
DNA sequence
The sequence or primary structure of a nucleic acid is the composition of atoms that make up the nucleic acid and the chemical bonds that bond those atoms. Because nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, are unbranched polymers, this specification is equivalent to specifying the sequence of...
s.