Diapensiaceae
Diapensia lapponica in Greenland
The Diapensiaceae are a plant family in the order of the heather -like ( Ericales ) within the class of angiosperms ( Magnoliopsida ). The taxa have a Holarctic distribution, with a focus on eastern Asia and in the U.S.. Galax urceolata is used as an ornamental plant and its medicinal effects were investigated.
- 3.1 Notes and references
Description
Vegetative characteristics
These species are mostly evergreen, perennial herbaceous plants or small subshrubs. They grow upright to creeping. Often ecto- and endo- mycorrhizal exists.
The alternate and spiral, and often too many close together arranged leaves are petiolate or sessile. The simple leaf blade is pinnately. The leaf margins are smooth, toothed or serrated. The leaves of Diapensia, Galax and Shortia some species are colored in autumn and winter, reddish to purple or orange - bronze colored by anthocyanins, this is one reason for the use of Galax leaves as greenery in floristry. Stipules absent.
Generative features
The flowers appear singly or in capitate, racemose inflorescences. The hermaphroditic, flowers are radial symmetry fünfzählig. There is a double perianth present. The five petals are fused only at their base and the Corolla lobe are spread. There are one or two circles, each with five stamens present, which can be up to five converted to staminodes; when a stamen circle is missing then it is the inner. The two-celled pollen grains have three or six apertures and are COLPAT, colporat or rugat. Most three, or rarely five carpels are fused into a superior ovaries. The numerous ovules are anatrop or amphitrop. The style ends in an often three-lobed, rarely capitate or discoid scar.
There are three or rarely formed fünffächerige, lokulizidale fruit capsules with many (10 to 30) seeds. The small, cylindrical, brown seeds contain a lot of fleshy endosperm and a straight or slightly curved embryo.
The base chromosome numbers be n = 6
Ingredients
Especially the leaves of most species to accumulate large amounts of aluminum ions. They contain anthocyanins and flavonols.
Systematics and distribution
They have a Holarctic distribution. The distribution area is disjoint with a focus on eastern Asia and in the U.S.. They thrive in arctic to temperate climates, often in alpine altitudes.
The family name was first published in 1836 by John Lindley in An Introduction to the Natural System of Botany, 233. Type genus is Diapensia L.. A synonym for is Galacaceae D.Don. They were formerly placed in the order of Diapensiales Engler & Gilg, today they are among the Ericales. Within the Ericales the Diapensiaceae are a sister group of the Styracaceae and these two families form a clade with the Symplocaceae.
To the family of Diapensiaceae includes five genera and about 12 to 15 species:
- Berneuxia Decne. With the only kind: Berneuxia thibetica Decne. ( Syn: Berneuxia yunnanensis HLLi, Shortia davidii Franchet. ): It is a perennial herbaceous plant. Deposits are located in humid pine forests, deciduous broadleaf forests and thickets at altitudes 1700-3500 m in the Chinese provinces of northwestern Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang southeastern and northern Yunnan.
- Bronze leaf ( Galax urceolata ( Poir. ) Brummitt, Syn: G. rotundifolia Pursh, G. aphylla L., Pyrola urceolata Poir. ): It is an evergreen, perennial herbaceous plant. It has deposits of shady places in forests, mainly in the Appalachian Mountains at altitudes up to 1500 m, in the southeastern United States of Massachusetts and New York south to northern Alabama.
Swell
- The Diapensiaceae in APWebsite family. (Section Description and systematics)
- The Diapensiaceae at DELTA by L. Watson & MJ Dallwitz family. ( Description section )
- Haining Qin & Bruce Bartholomew: Diapensiaceae in the Flora of China, Volume 14, p 235: Online. ( Description section )
- Guy L. Nesom: Diapensiaceae in the Flora of North America, Volume 8, 2009, p 332: Online. (Section Description and systematics)
- Kristina Rönbloma & Arne A. Anderberg: Phylogeny of Diapensiaceae Based on Molecular Data and Morphology in Systematic Botany, 27 (2 ), 2002, pp. 383-395: Online.