Oleaceae, also known as the olive family, is a

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

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

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s, and a few

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 in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Lamiales, It presently comprises 28

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 ...

, one of which is recently

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

.Peter S. Green. 2004. "Oleaceae". pages 296-306. 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 extant

include ''Cartrema'', which was resurrected in 2012. The number of species in the Oleaceae is variously estimated in a wide range around 700. The flowers are often numerous and highly odoriferous.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. . The family has a sub

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 ...

, ranging from the

subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of humid continental regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and the Cairngorms. Generally, ...

to the southernmost parts of Africa, Australia, and South America. Notable members include

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

ash Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non- gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...

jasmine Jasmine ( taxonomic name: ''Jasminum''; , ) is a genus of shrubs and vines in the olive family (Oleaceae). It contains around 200 species native to tropical and warm temperate regions of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Jasmines are widely cultiva ...

, and several popular

ornamental plant 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 ...

s including privet,

forsythia ''Forsythia'' , is a genus of flowering plants in the olive family Oleaceae. There are about 11 species, mostly native to eastern Asia, but one native to southeastern Europe. ''Forsythia'' – also one of the plant's common names – is ...

, fringetrees, and

lilac ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering plant, flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and wid ...

. Anthony Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (1992). ''The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening''. The Macmillan Press,Limited: London. The Stockton Press: New York. (set).

Genera

The following 27 extant genera are recognized in the family Oleaceae. ''Linociera'' is not included, even though some authors continue to recognize it. ''Linociera'' is not easy to distinguish from ''Chionanthus'', mostly because the latter is polyphyletic and not clearly defined. *Tribe

Myxopyreae Myxopyreae is a tribe of flowering plants in the olive family, Oleaceae. Genera * ''Dimetra'' Kerr * '' Myxopyrum'' Blume * ''Nyctanthes ''Nyctanthes'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, native to southeastern Asia. It is ...

** ''

Myxopyrum ''Myxopyrum'' is a plant genus native to India, southern China, Southeast Asia and New Guinea. There are at present () 4 recognized species: *'' Myxopyrum nervosum'' Blume - Borneo, Java, Malaysia, Maluku, Sulawesi, Sumatra, New Guinea ** subsp ...

'' Blume ** ''

Dimetra DIMETRA IP is the brand name under which Motorola markets its implementation of the TETRA digital radio communications standard. When Motorola split into Motorola Solutions and Motorola Mobility in 2011, Motorola Solutions retained Dimetra and ...

'' Kerr ** ''

Nyctanthes ''Nyctanthes'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, native to southeastern Asia. It is currently accepted as containing two species; other species previously included in this genus have been transferred to other genera, most of ...

'' L. *Tribe

Forsythieae Forsythieae is a tribe of flowering plants in the olive family, Oleaceae. Genera * '' Abeliophyllum'' Nakai * ''Forsythia ''Forsythia'' , is a genus of flowering plants in the olive family Oleaceae. There are about 11 species, mostly nati ...

** ''

Abeliophyllum ''Abeliophyllum'', the miseonnamu, Korean abeliophyllum, white forsythia, or Korean abelialeaf, is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the olive family, Oleaceae. It consists of one species, ''Abeliophyllum distichum'' , endemic to Korea, wh ...

'' Nakai – white forsythia ** ''

Forsythia ''Forsythia'' , is a genus of flowering plants in the olive family Oleaceae. There are about 11 species, mostly native to eastern Asia, but one native to southeastern Europe. ''Forsythia'' – also one of the plant's common names – is ...

'' Vahl – forsythia *Tribe

Fontanesieae ''Fontanesia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, usually treated as comprising a single species ''Fontanesia phillyreoides'', though some authors split this into two species (see below). It is native to southern Europe (Sicil ...

** ''

Fontanesia ''Fontanesia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, usually treated as comprising a single species ''Fontanesia phillyreoides'', though some authors split this into two species (see below). It is native to southern Europe (Sicil ...

'' Labill. *Tribe

Jasmineae Jasmineae is a Tribe (biology), tribe of flowering plants in the olive family, Oleaceae. Genera * ''Jasminum'' Carl Linnaeus, L. - Jasmines * ''Menodora'' Humb. & Bonpl. References

Jasmineae, Asterid tribes {{Oleaceae-stub ...

** '' Chrysojasminum'' Banfi ** ''

Menodora ''Menodora'' is a genus of perennial plants and shrubs in the olive family Oleaceae. Its 23 species (as per Green 2003) are found in the temperate Americas and in southern Africa. These are uniform species of deserts and arid grasslands or savann ...

Humb. Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...

& Bonpl. ** '' Jasminum'' L. – jasmine *Tribe

Oleeae Oleeae is a tribe of flowering plants in the olive family, Oleaceae Oleaceae, also known as the olive family, is a taxonomic family of flowering shrubs, trees, and a few lianas in the order Lamiales, It presently comprises 28 genera, one ...

**Subtribe Ligustrinae *** '' Syringa'' L. – lilac *** ''

Ligustrum A privet is a flowering plant in the genus ''Ligustrum''. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs, sometimes forming small or medium-sized trees, native to Europe, north Africa, Asia, many introduced and nat ...

'' L. – privet **Subtribe Schreberinae *** ''

Comoranthus ''Comoranthus''Emil Friedrich Knoblauch. 1934. Notizblatt des Botanischen Gartens und Museums zu Berlin-Dahlem 11: 1032. is a plant genus native to Madagascar and the Comoro Islands. It contains 3 species:Knobl. *** ''

Schrebera ''Schrebera'' is a genus of plant in the family Oleaceae found in Peru, tropical and southern Africa, India and Southeast Asia. the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognises 8 species:Search for "Schrebera", * '' Schrebera alata'' ...

'' Roxb. **Subtribe Fraxininae *** ''

Fraxinus ''Fraxinus'' (), common name, commonly called ash, is a genus of flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45–65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous, though a number of Subtropics, subtropic ...

'' L. – ash **Subtribe Oleinae *** ''

Cartrema ''Cartrema'' is a genus of a few species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, native to southeastern Asia, southern China, and North America (Mexico, Central America, southeastern United States), formerly treated as section ''Leiolea'' of ...

'' Raf. *** ''

Chionanthus ''Chionanthus'' , common name: fringetrees, is a genus of about 150 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. The genus has a wide distribution primarily in the tropics and subtropics, but with three species extending north into te ...

'' L. – fringe tree *** ''

Forestiera ''Forestiera'' is a genus of flowering plants in the olive family, Oleaceae. Members of the genus are often called swampprivets.Poir. Jean Louis Marie Poiret (11 June 1755 in Saint-Quentin7 April 1834 in Paris) was a French clergyman, botanist, and explorer. From 1785 to 1786, he was sent by Louis XVI to Algeria to study the flora. After the French Revolution, he became a ...

– swamp privet *** ''

Haenianthus ''Haenianthus'' is a genus of plants native to the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. It contains 3 species: # '' Haenianthus incrassatus'' (Sw.) Griseb. - Jamaica # '' Haenianthus salicifolius'' Griseb. - Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico # '' Ha ...

Griseb. August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach () was a German botany, botanist and phytogeography, phytogeographer. He was born in Hannover on 17 April 1814 and died in Göttingen on 9 May 1879. Biography Grisebach studied at the Lyceum in Hanover, the clo ...

*** ''

Hesperelaea ''Hesperelaea'' is a plant genus with only one species, probably now extinct. ''Hesperelaea palmeri'' was found only on Guadalupe Island, a small island in the Pacific Ocean, part of the Mexican state of Baja California, about southwest of En ...

A.Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His '' Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually exc ...

*** ''

Nestegis ''Nestegis'' is a genus of flowering plant in the olive family, Oleaceae. There are five currently accepted species in the genus: three species are endemic to New Zealand, while one can be found on New Zealand and Norfolk Island. Another is r ...

'' Raf. *** ''

Noronhia ''Noronhia'' is a genus of 40 known species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, all but one native to Madagascar, the remaining species native to the Comoros Islands north of Madagascar.University of Oxford, Oleaceae information site''Nor ...

'' Stadman ex Thouars *** ''

Notelaea ''Notelaea'' is a genus of Australian plants in the olive family.Étienne Pierre Ventenat. 1804. Choix de Plantes, dont la Plupart sont Cultivees dans le Jardin de Cels sub t. 25. They are commonly known as 'mock-olives'. Twelve species are c ...

'' Vent. *** '' Olea'' L. – olive *** ''

Osmanthus ''Osmanthus'' ''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. Most of the species are native to eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Indochina, the Himalayas, etc.),and was ...

'' Lour. – osmanthus *** ''

Phillyrea ''Phillyrea'' is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, native to the Mediterranean region, and naturalized in the Canary Islands and Madeira. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees growing to 3–9 m tall, related ...

'' L. – mock-privet *** ''

Picconia Picconia is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae, found in the laurel forests habitat of Macaronesia. Description They are evergreen shrubs to trees with large, opposite, entire, shiny, ovoid leaves and numerous ...

'' D.C. *** ''

Priogymnanthus ''Priogymnanthus'' is a genus of three species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae native to tropical South America, in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina and Paraguay.University of Oxford Oleaceae information site''Priogymnan ...

'' P.S.Green

Overview

The type genus for Oleaceae is ''Olea'', the olives. Recent classifications recognize no

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

, but the family is divided into five

tribes 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 is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

. The distinctiveness of each tribe has been strongly supported in

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

studies, but the relationships among the tribes were not clarified until 2014. The

phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

for Oleaceae is a 5- grade that can be represented as . The major

centers of diversity A center of origin is a geographical area where a group of organisms, either domesticated or wild, first developed its distinctive properties. They are also considered centers of diversity. Centers of origin were first identified in 1924 by Ni ...

for Oleaceae are in Southeast Asia and Australia.Armen L. Takhtajan (Takhtadzhian).
Flowering Plants
' second edition (2009). Springer Science+Business Media. (print) (eBook). There are also a significant number of species in Africa, China,Mei-chen Chang, Lien-ching Chiu, Zhi Wei, and Peter S. Green. 1996.
Oleaceae
pages 272-319. In: Wu Zhengyi, Peter H. Raven, and Hong Deyuan (editors). 1994 onward. ''Flora of China'' vol. 15: Myrsinaceae – Loganiaceae. Science Press: Beijing, China; and Missouri Botanical Garden Press: St. Louis, MO, USA. (vol. 15) (set). and North America. In the

tropics 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 ...

the family is represented in a variety of

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, from low-lying dry forest to montane

cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...

. In Oleaceae, the

seed dispersal In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, ...

is almost entirely by

wind Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...

or animals. In the case that the fruit is a berry, the species is mostly dispersed by

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s. The wind-dispersed fruits are samaras. Some of the older works have recognized as many as 29 genera in Oleaceae.Flora ornamental española, VI (Araliaceae – Boraginaceae)
2010. Today, most authors recognize at least 25, but this number will change because some of these genera have recently been shown to be polyphyletic. Estimates of the number of species in Oleaceae have ranged from 600 to 900. Most of the species number discrepancy is due to the genus ''Jasminum'' in which as few as 200Peter S. Green and Diana Miller. 2009. ''The Genus ''Jasminum'' in Cultivation''. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. . or as many as 450David J. Mabberley. 2008.
Mabberley's Plant-Book
' third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. . species have been accepted. In spite of the sparsity of the fossil record, and the inaccuracy of molecular-clock dating, it is clear that Oleaceae is an ancient family that became widely distributed early in its history. Some of the genera are believed to be relictual populations that remained unchanged over long periods because of isolation imposed by geographical barriers like the low-elevation areas that separate mountain peaks.

Description

Members of the family Oleaceae are woody plants, mostly

s and

s; a few are

s. Some of the shrubs are

scandent 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 themselve ...

, climbing by scrambling into other vegetation.

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

without stipules;

simple Simple or SIMPLE may refer to: *Simplicity, the state or quality of being simple Arts and entertainment * ''Simple'' (album), by Andy Yorke, 2008, and its title track * "Simple" (Florida Georgia Line song), 2018 * "Simple", a song by Johnn ...

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

ly or ternately compound. The family is characterized by opposite leaves. Alternate or whorled arrangements are rarely observed, with some '' Jasminum'' species presenting a spiral configuration. The laminas are pinnately veined and can be serrate, dentate or entire at the margin. Domatia are observed in certain taxa. The leaves may be either deciduous or evergreen, with evergreen species predominating in warm

temperate 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 ...

and

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 ...

regions, and deciduous species predominating in colder regions. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are most often bisexual and actinomorphic, occurring in

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s or

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s, and often fragrant. The calyx and corolla, when present, are gamosepalous and gamopetalous, respectively, their lobes connate, at least at the base. The

androecium 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 filam ...

has 2

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. These are inserted on the corolla tube and alternate with the corolla lobes. The stigmas are two-lobed. The

gynoecium Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

consists of a compound

pistil Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

with two carpels. 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. ...

superior Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places *Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lake ...

with two

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. The

placentation Placentation refers to the formation, type and structure, or arrangement of the placenta. The function of placentation is to transfer nutrients, respiratory gases, and water from maternal tissue to a growing embryo, and in some instances to remove ...

is axile.

Ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the megasporangium), and the fe ...

s usually 2 per locule; sometimes 4, rarely many. Nectary disk, when present, encircling the base of the ovary. The plants are most often

hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrate ...

but sometimes polygamomonoecious. The fruit can be a

berry A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples are strawberries, raspb ...

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

, capsule or samaras. The obvious feature that distinguishes Oleaceae and its sister family,

Carlemanniaceae The Carlemanniaceae are a tropical East Asian and Southeast Asian family of subshrub to herbaceous perennial flowering plants with 2 genera. Older systems of plant taxonomy place the two genera, ''Carlemannia'', and ''Silvianthus'' within the C ...

, from all others, is the fact that while the flowers are actinomorphic, the number of stamens is reduced to two. Many members of the family are economically significant. The

(''Olea europaea'') is important for its fruit and for the

olive oil Olive oil is a liquid fat obtained from olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea''; family Oleaceae), a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin, produced by pressing whole olives and extracting the oil. It is commonly used in cooking: f ...

extracted from it. The

ashes Ashes may refer to: *Ash, the solid remnants of fires. Media and entertainment Art * ''Ashes'' (Munch), an 1894 painting by Edvard Munch Film * ''The Ashes'' (film), a 1965 Polish film by director Andrzej Wajda * ''Ashes'' (1922 film), a ...

(''Fraxinus'') are valued for their tough wood.

osmanthus ''Osmanthus'' ''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae. Most of the species are native to eastern Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Indochina, the Himalayas, etc.),and was ...

es, privets, and fringe trees are valued as

s in gardens and

landscaping Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including the following: # Living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly called gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal o ...

. At least two species of jasmine are the source of an

essential oil An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetheroleum, or simply as the o ...

. Their flowers are often added to

tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

History

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

named eight of the genera of Oleaceae in 1753 in his

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

. He did not designate what we now know as plant families, but placed his genera in artificial groups for purposes of identification. After the work of Linnaeus, names for groups that included the genera of Oleaceae were used, but none of them was a

valid publication In botanical nomenclature, a validly published name is a name that meets the requirements in the ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' for valid publication. Valid publication of a name represents the minimum require ...

of the family name Oleaceae. For example,

Antoine Laurent de Jussieu Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (; 12 April 1748 – 17 September 1836) was a French botanist, notable as the first to publish a natural classification of flowering plants; much of his system remains in use today. His classification was based on an e ...

, in his ''

Genera Plantarum ''Genera Plantarum'' is a publication of Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778). The first edition was issued in Leiden, 1737. The fifth edition served as a complementary volume to ''Species Plantarum'' (1753). Article 13 of the Internati ...

'' in 1789, placed them in an order which he called "Jasmineae". In 1809, in a flora of Portugal,

Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg Johann Centurius Hoffmann Graf von Hoffmannsegg (23 August 1766 – 13 December 1849) was a German botanist, entomologist and ornithologist. Hoffmannsegg was born at Rammenau and studied at Leipzig and Göttingen. He travelled through Europe a ...

and Johann H.F. Link described at the taxonomic rank of family a group which they called "Oleinae". Their description is now regarded as the establishment of what we now know as Oleaceae.James L. Reveal. 2008 onward.
A Checklist of Family and Suprafamilial Names for Extant Vascular Plants
" At: Home page of James L. Reveal and C. Rose Broome. The last revision of Oleaceae was published in 2004 in a series entitled '' The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants''. Since that time, molecular phylogenetic work has shown that the next revision of Oleaceae must include substantial changes to the circumscription of genera.

Classification

Oleaceae is most closely related to the small Indo-Malesian family

. These two families form the second most basal

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, ...

in the

Lamiales, after

Plocospermataceae ''Plocosperma'' is the sole genus in the Plocospermataceae,Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards)Plocospermataceae ''Angiosperm Phylogeny Website'', retrieved 2013-08-15 a family of flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fru ...

.Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards).
Oleaceae
At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Botanical Databases At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. The families Plocospermataceae, Carlemanniaceae, Oleaceae, and

Tetrachondraceae Tetrachondraceae is a plant family in the order 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 in ...

form a polyphyletic group known as the "basal Lamiales", which is in contrast to the

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

"core Lamiales".

Taxonomy

Oleaceae is one of only a few major plant families for which no well-sampled molecular phylogenetic study has ever been conducted. The only

DNA sequence DNA sequencing is the process of determining the nucleic acid sequence – the order of nucleotides in DNA. It includes any method or technology that is used to determine the order of the four bases: adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine. Th ...

study of the entire family sampled 76 species for two noncoding

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it in ...

loci, ''rps16'' and ''trnL–F''. Little was determined in this study, largely because the mutation rate in the

chloroplast genome Chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) is the DNA located in chloroplasts, which are photosynthetic organelles located within the cells of some eukaryotic organisms. Chloroplasts, like other types of plastid, contain a genome separate from that in the cell Cel ...

of Oleaceae is very low compared to that of most other angiosperm families. Also, the family is notorious for incongruence between phylogenies based on plastid and nuclear DNA. The most likely cause of this incongruence is reticulate evolution resulting from rampant

hybridization Hybridization (or hybridisation) may refer to: *Hybridization (biology), the process of combining different varieties of organisms to create a hybrid *Orbital hybridization, in chemistry, the mixing of atomic orbitals into new hybrid orbitals *Nu ...

. The delimitation of genera in Oleaceae has always been especially problematic. Some recent studies of small groups of related genera have shown that some of the genera are not monophyletic. For example, ''Olea'' section ''Tetrapilus'' is separate from the rest of ''Olea''. It is a distinct group of 23 species and had been named as a genus, ''Tetrapilus'', by João de Loureiro in 1790.''Tetrapilus''
in International Plant Names Index. The genus ''Ligustrum'' has long been suspected of having originated from within ''Syringa'', and this was confirmed in a cladistic comparison of selected chloroplast genes. ''Osmanthus'' consists of at least three lineages whose closest relatives are not other lineages of ''Osmanthus''. ''Chionanthus'' is highly polyphyletic, with its species scattered across the phylogenetic tree of the subtribe Oleinae. Its African species are closer to ''Noronhia'' than to its

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

, the North American ''

Chionanthus virginicus ''Chionanthus virginicus'' (white fringetree) is a tree native to the savannas and lowlands of the southeastern United States, from New Jersey south to Florida, and west to Oklahoma and Texas.USDA Woody Plant Seed Manual''Chionanthus virginicus'' ...

''. Its Madagascan species are phylogenetically within ''Noronhia'' and will be formally transferred to it in a forthcoming paper. The monophyly of ''Nestegis'' is in considerable doubt, but few of its closest relatives have been sampled in phylogenetic studies.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Lamiales families