[FWTA]
Lepidobotryaceae, Hutchinson and Dalziel. Flora of West Tropical Africa 1:2. 1958
- Morphology General Habit
- Trees, shrubs or climbers
- Morphology Leaves
- Leaves alternate, pinnate trifoliolate or unifoliolate with a jointed petiole, leaflets entire, pinnately nerved; stipules and stipels caducous
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
- Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, actinomorphic; in axillary or terminal panicles or slender or short catkin-like racemes
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Calyx
- Sepals 5, imbricate, united in the lower part
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
- Petals 5, imbricate, free
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium
- Stamens 10, inserted on the margin of a fleshy disk; filaments more or less connate at the base into a short tube, sterile in female flowers; anthers 2-celled, dorsifixed, opening by slits lengthwise
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium
- Ovary superior, 5- or 3-celled; styles 5 or 3, free or shortly connate at the base; ovules 2 in each cell, on axile placentas, collateral or superposed
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
- Fruit berry-like, indehiscent or septicidally dehiscent
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds
- Seeds covered by a fleshy, sometimes laciniate aril, with endosperm; embryo straight or oblique, with 2 fleshy foliaceous cotyledons
[NTK]
Every, J.L.R. (2009). Neotropical Lepidobotryaceae.
- Morphology
-
Description
Dioecious , evergreen trees, bark with bitter taste, sparse indumentum of small simple trichomes. Leaves alternate , distichous , pulvinate , unifoliolate; stipule and stipel present, very fugacious, leaving scars; lamina chartaceous , entire , venation pinnate . Inflorescences terminal (appearing leaf opposed), congested, of spicate panicles, small bracts present at base, peduncle puberulous. Flowers minute, greenish, bracteolate, sessile , cryptically unisexual, male flowers with rudimentary ovules, female flowers with anthers without pollen , actinomorphic ; calyx with 5, free , imbricate sepals, ciliate ; corolla with 5 free , imbricate petals, apically ciliate ; stamens 10 in two whorls, ± connate basally, free of perianth , antepetalous stamens have long filaments, antesepalous ± sessile (no free part), anthers basifixed, dehiscing lengthways, filaments fused into a nectary tube (more conspicuous in male flowers); ovary superior , 2-carpellate, 2 locules , 2 ovules per carpel , stylodia short or sessile . Fruit capsular, coriaceous or woody , ovoid , septicidal , dehiscing irregularly, endocarp distinct, columella persisting, 2 horny endocarps, one nearly completely surrounding seed and in shape of a snail shell, other usually empty and smaller, caducous ; seed one rarely two, black with reddish-orange aril .
- General Description
-
Notes on delimitation
- Member of the Celastrales (APG 2, 2003).
- Sister group of a clade containing Celastraceae and Parnassiaceae (Zhang & Simmons, 2006).
- One genus in the New World (Ruptiliocarpon Hammel & N. Zamora), with one species - Ruptiliocarponcaracolito Hammel & N. Zamora.
- The other genus in Lepidobotryaceae is the monotypicLepidobotrys (L. staudtii Engl. and restricted to tropical Africa.
- Known locally in Costa Rica as Cedro caracolito, a reference to the horny endocarp shaped like a macaroni shell.
- Takes its Latin name from the Latin for irregularly splitting (= ruptilis) and the Greek for fruit< /A> (= carpon).
- Distribution
-
Distribution in the Neotropics
- Scattered throughout Neotropics south to Peru.
- Lowland primary forest on well-drained soils, from sea level to 400 metres altitude.
- Diagnostic
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Other important characters
- Stipels and stipules quickly falling.
The familes below differ from Lepidobotryaceae in possessing the following characters:
Linaceae:
- Herbs.
- Simple leaves.
- Terminal cymose or racemose inflorescence.
- Bisexual flowers.
- Seeds exarillate.
Erythroxylaceae:
- Simple leaves.
- Sepals basally connate.
- Petals appendaged.
- Fruits drupaceous.
- Seeds exarillate.
Oxalidaceae:
- Hermaphroditic or androdioecious.
- Exstipulate.
- Nectariferous disk lacking.
- Ovary 5-merous.
- Fruit a loculicidal capsule.
Fabaceae:
- Fused sepals.
- Unicarpellate.
- Fruits legumes.
- Seeds exarillate.
Meliaceae:
- Alternate spiraling leaves.
- Exstipulate.
- Intrastaminal or gynophoreal separate disk.
- Plants dioecious.
- Pulvinate leaves with entire margins.
- Inflorescence seemingly leaf-opposed.
- Flowers small and inconspicuous subtended by three small bracteoles.
- Free perianth parts.
- 10 stamens - the 5 opposite the petals longer than those opposite the sepals, fused to form a nectary tube.
- Gynoecium 2-carpellate, 2 locules, 2 ovules per carpel.
- Ovarysuperior.
- Fruit an irregularly dehiscentcapsule.
- Horny endocarp.
- Seed arillate.
- Literature
-
Important literature
APG 2. 2003. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 141: 399-436
Hammel, B.E. & Smith, N. 2004. Lepidobotryaceae. In: Smith, N., Mori, S. A., Henderson, A., Stevenson, D. W. & Heald, S. V. (eds). Flowering Plants of the Neotropics. pp. 213-4. The New York Botanical Garden, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Hammel, B.E. & Zamora, N. 1993. Ruptiliocarpon (Lepidobotryaceae): A new arborescent genus and tropical American link to Africa, with a reconsideration of the family. Novon 3: 408-417.
Heywood, V.H. 2007. Lepidobotryaceae. In: V.H. Heywood, R.K. Brummitt, A. Culham & O. Seberg (eds). Flowering plant families of the world, pp. 191-2. Kew: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Kubitzki, K. 2004. Lepidobotryaceae. In Kubitzki, K. (ed.), amilies and genera of vascular plants vol. 6. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. pp. 233-5. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Maas, P. J. M. & Westra, L. Y. Th. 2005. Neotropical Plant Families. 3rd ed. p. 164. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag K.G., Ruggell.
Stevens, P. F. 2008. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9 onwards. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/.
Tobe, H. & Hammel, B. 1993. Floral morphology, embryology and seed anatomy of Ruptiliocarponcaracolito (Lepidobotryaceae). Novon 3: 423-428.
Watson, L. and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 14th December 2000.
Zhang, L & Simmons, M. P. 2006. Phylogeny and delimitation of the Celastrales inferred from nuclear and plastid genes. Systematic Botany 31(1): 122-137.
Lepidobotryaceae J.Léonard appears in other Kew resources:
First published in Bull. Jard. Bot. État Bruxelles 20: 38. 1950 [Jun 1950] (1950)
Accepted by
- APG IV (2016) http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/boj.12385
-
Flora of West Tropical Africa
Flora of West Tropical Africa
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
-
Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
-
Neotropikey
Milliken, W., Klitgard, B. and Baracat, A. (2009 onwards), Neotropikey - Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics.
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0