family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
of
flowering plant
Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
Lamiales
The order Lamiales (also known as the mint order) are an order in the asterid group of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It includes about 23,810 species, 1,059 genera, and is divided into about 25 families. These families include Acanthaceae, Bi ...
commonly known as the bignonias or trumpetvines.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. (2007). . It is not known to which of the other families in the order it is most closely related.Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). "Bignoniaceae" At:
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Website (or APweb) is a website dedicated to research on angiosperm phylogeny and taxonomy.
The site is hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden website and maintained by researchers, Peter F. Stevens and Hilary M. Davis ...
. At: Botanical Databases At:
Missouri Botanical Garden
The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million spe ...
Website. (see ''External links'' below)
Nearly all of the Bignoniaceae are
woody plant
A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposite to herbaceous plants that die back to the ground until sp ...
s, but a few are subwoody, either as
vine
A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...
s or
subshrub
A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or dwarf shrub is a short shrub, and is a woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a related term. "Subshrub" is often used interchangeably with "bush".Jackson, Benjamin, Daydon; A Glossary of Botanic Terms with their Der ...
s. A few more are
herbaceous plant
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials.
Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous"
The fourth edition of t ...
s of high-
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
montane
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
s, in three exclusively herbaceous
genera
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
liana
A liana is a long- stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. The word ''liana'' does not refer to a ta ...
s, climbing by
tendril
In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape used by climbing plants for support and attachment, as well as cellular invasion by parasitic plants such as '' Cuscuta''. There are many plants that have tend ...
s, by twining, or rarely, by
aerial root
Aerial roots are roots above the ground. They are almost always adventitious. They are found in diverse plant species, including epiphytes such as orchids (''Orchidaceae''), tropical coastal swamp trees such as mangroves, banyan figs (''Fic ...
s. The largest
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...
in the family, called Bignonieae, consists mostly of lianas and is noted for its unique wood anatomy.Eberhard Fischer, Inge Theisen, and Lúcia G. Lohmann. 2004. "Bignoniaceae". pages 9-38. In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor) and Joachim W. Kadereit (volume editor). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume VII. Springer-Verlag: Berlin; Heidelberg, Germany.
The family has a nearly
cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, cosmopolitan distribution is the term for the range of a taxon that extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. Such a taxon, usually a species, is said to exhibit cosmopolitanism or cosmopolitism. The ext ...
, but is mostly
tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
, with a few
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
native
Native may refer to:
People
* Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth
* Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory
** Native Americans (disambiguation)
In arts and entert ...
to the
temperate zones
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...
. Its greatest
diversity
Diversity, diversify, or diverse may refer to:
Business
*Diversity (business), the inclusion of people of different identities (ethnicity, gender, age) in the workforce
*Diversity marketing, marketing communication targeting diverse customers
* ...
is in northern South America. The family has been covered in some major
floristic
{{Short pages monitor
Many species of Bignoniaceae have some use, either Commerce, commercially or ethnobotanically, but the most important, by far, are those Sowing, planted as
ornamentals
Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...
, especially the flowering trees. ''Jacaranda, Campsis, Pyrostegia, Tabebuia, Catalpa, Roseodendron, Handroanthus'' and ''Crescentia'' all have species of Horticulture, horticultural significance, at least in warm climates. Several others, including ''Tecoma, Podranea, Pandorea, Bignonia'' and ''Mansoa'' are frequently Plant propagation, grown as ornamentals, at least in certain areas of the tropics. A great many species are known in cultivation, if only rarely.
''Jacaranda mimosifolia'' is common as an avenue tree. The winged petiole and trifoliate leaf of ''Crescentia alata'' resembles a crucifixion cross, so is sometimes planted in the Philippines as a religious symbol.
''Handroanthus'' and the unrelated ''Guaiacum'' (Zygophyllaceae) have the hardest, heaviest, and most durable wood of the American tropics. Important timber trees in ''Handroanthus'' include ''H. heptaphyllus'', ''H. serratifolius'', ''H. guayacan'', ''H. chrysanthus'', and ''H. billbergii''. ''Tabebuia rosea'' (including ''Tabebuia pentaphylla'') is harvested for lumber throughout the New World tropics. ''Tabebuia heterophylla'', and ''Tabebuia angustata'' are important sources of lumber for some of the Caribbean islands. Several species of ''Catalpa'' are also important timber trees.
''Paratecoma'' was once the most important timber tree of the Rio de Janeiro area, but relentless exploitation has brought it to the verge of extinction. Several of the rare species of Bignoniaceae produce excellent wood, but are often not recognized by lumberjacks.
Several uses of plants in Bignoniaceae are known locally. ''Parmentiera aculeata'' is grown for its edible fruit in Central America and southern Mexico. The powdered seeds and sometimes the fruit pulp of ''Crescentia cujete'' and ''Crescentia alata'' are used in Nicaragua to make a refresco called ''semilla de jicaro''. Onion-scented species of ''Mansoa'' and clove-scented species of ''Tynanthus'' are used as condiments.
In northern Colombia, shavings of the stems of ''Dolichandra quadrivalvis'' are added to bait which is left overnight near the burrows of crabs. The crabs are Paralysis, paralyzed for a few hours after eating the bait and are picked up by crabbers in the morning. The crabs recover before they reach market, and no harm from eating them has been reported.
''Tanaecium nocturnum'' is the source of a hallucinogenic drug.Christian Rätsch. 2005. ''The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants'' (translated by John R. Baker). Park Street Press: Rochester VT, USA. . Its crushed leaves and stems are used to enervate bees while gathering honey.
''Fridericia chica'' is the source of a red pigment used in the Amazon Basin for body paint and for dye in basketry. ''Cybistax antisyphilitica'' is the source of a blue dye commonly used in Peru. The bark of ''Sparattosperma leucantha'' is used in Bolivia to produce a brown dye for staining cotton thread.
Medical claims are innumerable and usually spurious. Gentry describes an especially ludicrous example.
Identification (biology), Misidentification of plants, even by botanists, continues to be a big problem for ethnobotany, and it is especially severe for Bignoniaceae. Voucher Biological specimen, specimens are often Infertility, sterile and fragmentary, making them nearly impossible to identify. False medical claims are often based on mistaken identification.
The bark of several species of ''Handroanthus'' is sold in South American markets. Similar-looking bark is often fraudulently passed off as ''Handroanthus''. It is used in various ways to relieve certain symptoms of certain cancers. No evidence shows it prevents the disease or slows its progression, as is often claimed.
''Adenocalymma flavida'' has been used to relieve the aching of joints and muscles. A root extract from ''Martinella (plant), Martinella'' is useful in the treatment of conjunctivitis and possibly other conditions of the eye.
References
Sources
* Alwyn H. Gentry. 1992. "Bignoniaceae: Part II (Tecomeae)". ''Flora Neotropica'' Monograph 25(2):1-150. (See ''External links'' below).