Sladeniaceae Airy Shaw is a family of flowering plants containing 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...

 species found in sub-tropical to tropical environments in East Africa

East Africa

East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...

 (Ficalhoa), Burma, Yunnan

Yunnan

Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...

 and Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

 (Sladenia). The family consists of trees with alternate, simply leaves without stipules, and flowers arranged in cymose inflorescences

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

.

The circumscription of the family is variable, with some systems describing the family as consisting solely of the genus Sladenia, which has been variously considered a member of the Theaceae

Theaceae

The Theaceae is a family of flowering plants, composed of shrubs and trees. Some botanists include the family Ternstroemiaceae within the Theaceae while others do not...

, the Actinidiaceae

Actinidiaceae

Actinidiaceae, or the Chinese Gooseberry family, is a small family of plants. It includes three genera and about 360 species. It is a member of the order Ericales.-Distribution:...

, the Dilleniaceae

Dilleniaceae

Dilleniaceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been universally recognized by taxonomists. It is known to gardeners for the genus Hibbertia, which contains many commercially valuable garden species....

, or the Ternstroemiaceae. Other systems include the genus Ficalhoa and possibly the genus Pentaphylax in a family with Sladenia. Morphological

Morphology (biology)

In biology, morphology is a branch of bioscience dealing with the study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features....

studies of the Sladenia embryo suggest it has unique characteristics which merit placing the genus in its own family. However, the plant family is poorly studied and initial phylogenetic studies have raised contradictory indications about its taxonomic placement.

External links

• Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 7, May 2006. Retrieved 31 May 2007