Lepidobotryaceae is a family of plants in the order Celastrales."Lepidobotryaceae" In: Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. In: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see External links below). It contains only two species:Klaus Kubitzky. "Lepidobotryaceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' vol.VI. Springer-Verlag: Berlin,Heidelberg, Germany (2004). '' Lepidobotrys staudtii'' (native to tropical Africa) and '' Ruptiliocarpon caracolito'' (native to South and Central America).

Description

The Lepidobotryaceae are

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

trees. The leaves are alternate and arranged in two rows along the stems. The blade is elliptical in shape and the margin is entire. The leaves appear simple, but are actually unifoliate. A unifoliate leaf is a type of compound leaf that consists of a single leaflet mounted on the end of a rachis. A joint occurs where the leaflet is attached to the rachis.Glossary In: Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. In: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see External links below). In Lepidobotryaceae, this joint bears a single, elongate

stipel A leaf ( : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, ste ...

and a pair of small

stipules In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...

where the petiole attaches to the stem. After the emergence of the leaf, the stipel and stipules soon fall away. The flowers are produced in small inflorescences opposite the leaves.Barry E. Hammel, and Nelson A. Zamora (1993). "''Ruptiliocarpon'' (Lepidobotryaceae): A New Arborescent Genus and Tropical American Link to Africa, with a Reconsideration of the Family". ''Novon'' 3(4):408-417. They are small and greenish with five sepals and five

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s. The sepals and petals are similar in size and appearance, free from each other, or very shortly united at the base. In the flower bud, the sepals are arranged quincuncially. This means that two are inside, two are outside, and one of them has one margin exposed and the other covered.Benjamin D. Jackson. ''A Glossary of Botanic Terms''. Duckworth: London (1928). The

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

y disk is fleshy in ''Lepidobotrys'', but extended into a tube in ''Ruptiliocarpon''. The

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

s are in two whorls of five, one whorl opposite the sepals and the other opposite the petals. Those in the outer whorl, opposite the sepals, are longer. The

filament The word filament, which is descended from Latin ''filum'' meaning " thread", is used in English for a variety of thread-like structures, including: Astronomy * Galaxy filament, the largest known cosmic structures in the universe * Solar filament ...

s are fused at the base, shortly in ''Lepidobotrys'', but forming an extension of the tubular nectary in ''Ruptiliocarpon''. The pollen is produced in four thecae on each anther. The stigmas are elongated, appearing as false styles, known as

stylodia The stigma () is the receptive tip of a Gynoecium#Carpels, carpel, or of several fused carpels, in the gynoecium of a flower. Description The stigma, together with the style and ovary (botany), ovary (typically called the stigma-style-ovary ...

. The

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

is located inside the flower, rather than below. It has two or three

locule A locule (plural locules) or loculus (plural loculi) (meaning "little place" in Latin) is a small cavity or compartment within an organ or part of an organism (animal, plant, or fungus). In angiosperms (flowering plants), the term ''locule'' usu ...

s, with two ovules per locule. The ovules are attached to the partition that separates the locules, near its summit. The fruit is a capsule with one, or rarely, two seeds. The seeds are black and partly covered with an orange

aril An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...

. In 2000, a DNA analysis of the eudicots based on the ''rbcL'' gene showed that the families Lepidobotryaceae, Parnassiaceae, and Celastraceae form a strongly supported

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

.Vincent Savolainen, Michael F. Fay, Dirk C. Albach, Anders Backlund, Michelle van der Bank, Kenneth M. Cameron, S.A. Johnson, M. Dolores Lledo, Jean-Christophe Pintaud, Martyn P. Powell, Mary Clare Sheahan, Douglas E. Soltis,

Pamela S. Soltis Pamela Soltis (born November 13, 1957) is an American botanist. She is a distinguished professor at the University of Florida, curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History, principal investigator of the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics an ...

, Peter Weston, W. Mark Whitten, Kenneth J. Wurdack and Mark W. Chase (2000). "Phylogeny of the eudicots: a nearly complete familial analysis based on ''rbcL'' gene sequences". ''Kew Bulletin'' 55(2):257-309. The authors of this study recommended that these three families constitute the order Celastrales. This result was strongly supported by later studies.Li-Bing Zhang and Mark P. Simmons (2006). "Phylogeny and Delimitation of the Celastrales Inferred from Nuclear and Plastid Genes". ''Systematic Botany'' 31(1):122-137.Hengchang Wang, Michael J. Moore, Pamela S. Soltis, Charles D. Bell, Samuel F. Brockington, Roolse Alexandre, Charles C. Davis, Maribeth Latvis, Steven R. Manchester, and Douglas E. Soltis (2009). "Rosid radiation and the rapid rise of angiosperm-dominated forests". ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 106(10):3853-3858. 10Mar2009. The families into which ''Lepidobotrys'' had usually been placed, Linaceae and Oxalidaceae, are now placed in the orders Malpighiales and Oxalidales, respectively, which are closely related to Celastrales. The orders Celastrales, Oxalidales, and Malpighiales, along with the unplaced family Huaceae form a group known as the COM clade of the rosids.

References

External links

Lepidobotryaceae
in Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards).

Adolf Engler 1902
in ''Bot. Jahrb.''
Jean Leonard 1950
{{Taxonbar, from=Q132073 Celastrales Rosid families Dioecious plants