Penaeaceae

Saltera sarcocolla

The Penaeaceae are a plant family in the order of Myrtenartigen ( Myrtales ). The approximately 30 species occur in eastern and southern Africa and St. Helena. The center of diversity is the capensis.

Description

The members of the family are evergreen shrubs, mostly they are small and erikoid. The simple, leathery leaves are opposite, as with most other Myrtenartigen, but there are here taxa with lively arranged leaves. The leaf margins are smooth. Stipules are present or absent.

The flowers are borne singly or in inflorescences. The hermaphrodite flowers are radial symmetry and fourfold. There are only four bracts present. It's just a circle with four free fertile stamens present, with short stamens. Four carpels are fused into a superior ovaries. In each flower there is only one style with a capitate or four-lobed stigma.

Only Olinia are drupes, with the other genera capsule fruits are formed. The seeds usually have a Elaiosom. In many species, the seeds are spread by ants ( myrmecochory ).

The basic chromosome number is x = 10

Systematics and distribution

The Penaeaceae family in 1828 by Robert Sweet in Jean Baptiste Antoine Guillemin: Dictionnaire classique d' histoire placed naturelle, 13, pp. 171. Type genus is Penaea L. The two genera Olinia and Rhynchocalyx the mono- generic family Rhynchocalycaceae LASJohnson & BGBriggs and Oliniaceae Harv. And Sond. were incorporated into the family of Penaeaceae. It belongs to the order Myrtales.

The Penaeaceae family is divided into two tribes and contains about nine genera with about 30 species:

• Tribus Olinieae Horan. , With the only genus: Olinia Thunb. Five to ten species are native to East Africa, the capensis, in an area in West Africa and on the island of St. Helena.

• Brachysiphon A.Juss. Approximately five species, one in the arid mountain ranges in the central - southern South Africa and the other in the southwestern Cape.
• Endonema A.Juss. Using only two species only in the River Sonderend Mountains in the Western Cape.
• Glischrocolla ( Endl. ) A.DC.: the only kind: Glischrocolla formosa ( Thunb. ) R.Dahlgren: This rare species is endemic to the Western Cape in the north " Hottentots Holland" Mountains at altitudes 1200-1400 meters.

• Incertae sedis: Rhynchocalyx Olive: . Using the single species: Rhynchocalyx lawsonioides Olive. It is endemic to the eastern South African provinces of KwaZulu -Natal and the Eastern Cape, there grows in the coastal forests along the Indian Ocean.

Swell

• The Penaeaceae in APWebsite (Sections Description, distribution and systematics) family.
• The families Penaeaceae, Rhynchocalycaceae and Oliniaceae at DELTA ( Description section ).