Ebenaceae

Persimmon or simply Kaki ( Diospyros kaki ) Tree with ripe fruits

The ebony family ( Ebenaceae ) are a family of plants in the order of the heather -like ( Ericales ) within the angiosperms ( Magnoliopsida ). In the family there are about four genera with about 490 species. The best-known domestic in the tropics of the East Indies and Africa genus of ebony trees and persimmons ( Diospyros ), with about 475-485 species.

• 5.1 Notes and references

Description

Vegetative characteristics

There are woody plants: mostly trees, sometimes upright shrubs. The bark, roots and often the bark of the branches are black, also the dry leaves is black; the inside of the bark is yellow. The hardwood has the typical black color. Some species have a spiky top ending branches.

The usually alternate and distichous, rarely against constantly arranged on the branches of deciduous leaves are simple, entire and have dark glands on the underside of leaves. Stipules absent.

Generative features

The flowers are hermaphrodite only sometimes; usually they are unisexual, then the species is dioecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( dioecious ). The male flowers are rarely individually or in small groups, usually they stand together in zymösen inflorescences. The female flowers are usually solitary in the leaf axils. The radial symmetry, three to siebenzähligen flowers have a double perianth. The three to seven sepals are fused. The three to seven petals are fused and the corolla is twisted. Are one, two or more circles in male and hermaphrodite flowers with a total of three to 28 stamens present. The stamens are fused freely or in pairs. In male flowers can be a gynoecium rudimentary or absent. Two to five (rarely to 16) carpels are one above or below constantly, syncarp nodes fused with an equal number of subjects such as carpels. The ovary compartment are usually only one or rarely two ovules available. Female flowers may contain rudimentary stamens. Two to eight pens are free or at most at its base fused with simple or bilobed scars.

There are sometimes formed edible, large, more or less fleshy berries, which contain few or a few seeds. The often enlarging until fruit ripening sepals are clearly visible on the fruit. The reddish or brown to black seeds have a small hilum, a straight to slightly curved embryo and an oily endosperm.

Use

Some species provide very valuable timber, various types of ebony. There are several types of fruit, the most important is the persimmon.

Dissemination

The origin of the family is on the western Gondwana continent. Most species grow in the tropics, but some species, there are also up in areas with moderate climate. They come pantropisch ago with distribution focus in the Indo-Malayan region.

System

The Ebenaceae family was first published in 1891 by Robert Louis August Maximilian Gürke in The natural plant families, 4 ( 1), p 153. Type genus is Ebenus Kuntze, now a synonym of Diospyros L.. Ebenus The botanical genus name refers to the old name for Ebony from Arabic abanus. Synonyms for Ebenaceae Gürke are: Diospyraceae Vest, Guaiacanaceae Juss, nom. . illeg. , Lissocarpaceae Gilg. The Ebenaceae family was formerly placed in an order Ebenales Engler and is now in the order of the Ericales with the Primulaceae sl as next of kin.

The Ebenaceae family is divided into two subfamilies, with about four ( three to six) genera with 490 species.:

• Lissocarpoideae Wallnoefer: With inferior ovary and very narrow Kronröhren. With the single genus: Lissocarpa Benth. With eight species from tropical South America.

• Euclea L.: With approximately twelve to twenty species in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Socotra and in the Comoros.
• Royena L.: It is often performed as a synonym of Diospyros, but if Royena is included in Diospyros / she would then be paraphyletic (see also discussion in Duangjai et al 2006. ). The home is Africa with a center of biodiversity in the Capensis.

Swell

• The Ebenaceae in APWebsite family. ( Section systematics and description)
• The Ebenaceae at DELTA family. (English)
• James E. Eckenwalder: Ebenaceae in the Flora of North America, Volume 8, page 247: Online. ( Description section )
• Shugang Li, Michael G. Gilbert & Frank White: Ebenaceae in the Flora of China, Volume 15, p 215: Online. ( Description section )
• Bruno Wallnoefer: A revision of Lissocarpa Benth. ( Ebenaceae subfam. Lissocarpoideeae ( Gilg in Engler ) B. Walln. ), In Annals of the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Series B, 2004, 105, pp. 515-564.
• Bruno Wallnoefer: Ebenaceae, in: O. Hokche, PE Berry & O. Huber (Editor): Nuevo Catálogo de la Flora Vascular de Venezuela, 2008, pp. 356-357.
• Sutee Duangjai, Bruno Wallnoefer, Rosabelle Samuel, Jérôme Munzinger & Mark W. Chase: Generic delimitation and relationships in Ebenaceae sensu lato. Evidence from six plastid DNA regions, in American Journal of Botany, 93 (12 ), 2006, pp. 1808 -1827: Online.
• Anke Geeraerts, Joost AM Raeymaekers, p Vinckier, A. Pletsers, Smets E. & S. Huysmans: Systematic palynology in Ebenaceae with focus on Ebenoideae: Morphological diversity and character evolution, in Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Volume 153, Issues 3 -4, 2009, pp. 336-353.