Siparunaceae

Siparuna cauliflora, illustration.

The Siparunaceae are a plant family of the order of the laurel -like. It consists of the Neotropical genus Siparuna and the African genus Glossocalyx.

• 4.1 Notes and references
• 4.2 Literature
• 4.3 External links

Features

The Siparunaceae are trees or lianas. The nodes are unilakunär with several leaf-trace strands. The chromosome number is n = 22

The leaves are evergreen, and on opposite sides. You can own glands. They are simple with undivided leaf blade and serrated or smooth blade edge, the venation is feathery. The leaves are without stipules. The stomata are paracytisch. Complex esters and shed hairs may be present. In the mesophyll have round, filled with essential oils cells.

Inflorescences and flowers

The plants are monoecious or dioecious, the individual flowers are always strictly unisexual. Dioecism has evolved within the family three times from the monoecious.

The inflorescences are spikes, panicles or cymes. They are usually axillary, rarely terminal.

The construction of the perianth is interpreted differently. The most common is that the four to eight bracts that are in one or two whorls, sepals are. In some species the bracts are completely fused together to form a calyptra ( cap cover), in others they are almost obsolete. In Glossocalyx a Blütenhüllblatt to a long flat, lanceolate tongue is enlarged ( hence the name tongue chalice ).

The androecium consists of male flowers from ( a ) two to many (eg, 2 2 2) stamens that are not fused and all fertile. The stamens have no nectar-producing trailer. The anthers open with one stone. The pollen is nonaperturat.

The gynoecium consists of four to many free or carpels. These are partly inferior, they are lowered into the fleshy hypanthium. The style is long. The stylus can be fused together. There is an ovule per carpel with basal placentation. The ovule is erect, anatrop, unitegmisch with a thick integument and crassinucellat.

Fruits

The fruits are small drupes with a red or orange aril. These are sunk in the fleshy, berry-like hypanthium that opens when ripe with cracks. The seeds have an endosperm.

Dissemination

The genus is native to tropical America Siparuna from Mexico to Brazil, the genus Glossocalyx in a small area in West Africa: Cameroon, Gabon, and on the island of Fernando Pó.

In the American species there is a relationship between gender, leaf margin and occurrence: dioecious species with smooth leaf edge occur in the lowlands, while monoecious species with serrated leaf edge occur in the mountains above 700 m. The lowland species are younger than the mountain clans ( 16 to 42 million years), with around four million years.

System

The sister group of the Siparunaceae within the Laurales is the group of Gomortegaceae and Atherospermataceae. The family consists of two genera with at least 75 species:

• Siparuna Aubl. with about 50-150 species in tropical South America
• Glossocalyx Benth. with the only kind: Glossocalyx longicuspis Benth.

The genera Bracteanthus and Conuleum are now incorporated into the genus Siparuna.

The family was erected in 1970 by Richard Schodde. Alphonse Louis Pierre de Candolle Pyrame had placed the group as a tribe Siparuneae in the Monimiaceae family.

Sources and further information

The article is based primarily on the following links:

• Siparunaceae on the APWebsite (English )
• Siparunaceae in L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards ), The families of flowering plants