The Ebenaceae are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...

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 t ...

s belonging to

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 ...

Ericales. The family includes ebony and persimmon among about 768

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 appropriat ...

of trees and shrubs. It is distributed across the

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 ...

and warmer

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 ...

regions of the world. It is most diverse in the

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

s of Malesia, India, tropical Africa and tropical America. Diospyros chloroxylon in Hyderabad W3 IMG 9477

Many species are valued for their wood, particularly ebony, for fruit, and as

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 ...

Biology

The fruits contain tannins, a plant defense against herbivory, so they are often avoided by animals when unripe. The ripe fruits of many species are a food source for diverse animal taxa. The

foliage 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, ...

is consumed by insects. The plants may have a strong scent. Some species have aromatic wood. They are important and conspicuous trees in many of their native

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

s, such as lowland dry forests of the former

Maui Nui Maui Nui or Greater Maui, is a modern geologists' name given to a prehistoric Hawaiian Island built from seven shield volcanoes. ''Nui'' means "great/large" in the Hawaiian language. 1.2 million years ago, Maui Nui was , 40% larger than the ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forests The Hyrcanian forests ( fa, جنگل های هیرکانی) are a zone of lush lowland and montane forests covering about adjoining the shores of the Caspian Sea of Iran and part of that of Azerbaijan. The forest is named after the ancient re ...

Khathiar–Gir dry deciduous forests The Khathiar–Gir dry deciduous forests (also Kathiarbar-Gir or Kathiawar-Gir) is a mostly arid ecoregion in northwestern India that stretches over across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. The dry deciduous forests in the region are domi ...

Louisiade Archipelago rain forests The Louisiade Archipelago is a string of ten larger volcanic islands frequently fringed by coral reefs, and 90 smaller coral islands in Papua New Guinea. It is located 200 km southeast of New Guinea, stretching over more than and spread ...

, Madagascar lowland forests,

Narmada Valley dry deciduous forests The Narmada Valley dry deciduous forests are a tropical dry forest ecoregion of central India. The ecoregion lies mostly in Madhya Pradesh state, but extends into portions of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh states. ...

, New Guinea mangroves, and South Western Ghats montane rain forests. Ebony is a dense black wood taken from several species in the genus '' Diospyros'', including ''

Diospyros ebenum ''Diospyros ebenum'', or Ceylon ebony ( si, කළුවර ''Kaluwara''), is a species of tree in the genus Diospyros and the family Ebenaceae. The tree produces valuable black wood. Description This middle-high evergreen tree grows very slo ...

'' (Ceylon ebony, Indian ebony), ''

Diospyros crassiflora ''Diospyros crassiflora'', commonly known as Gabon ebony, African ebony, West African ebony, and Benin ebony is a species of lowland-rainforest tree in the family Ebenaceae that is endemic to Western Africa. It is named after the West African sta ...

'' (West African ebony, Benin ebony), and ''

Diospyros celebica ''Diospyros celebica'' (commonly known as black ebony or Makassar ebony) is a species of flowering tree in the family Ebenaceae that is endemic to the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. The common name Makassar ebony is for the main seaport on th ...

'' (Makassar ebony). '' Diospyros tesselaria'' (Mauritius ebony) was heavily exploited by the Dutch in the 17th century.

Description

The family includes

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

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 tree ...

s. The leaves are usually alternately arranged, but some species have opposite or whorled leaves. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are forme ...

is usually a cyme of flowers, sometimes a

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 ...

or a

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 ...

, and some plants produce solitary flowers. Most species are dioecious. The flower has 3 to 8 petals, which are joined at the bases. There are usually several single or paired

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 fila ...

s, which are often attached to the inner wall of the corolla. Female flowers have up to 8 stigmas. The

calyx Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to: Biology * Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...

is persistent. The fruits are

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, rasp ...

-like or capsular. Like the wood of some species, the roots and bark may be black in color.Duangjai, S., et al. (2006)
Generic delimitation and relationships in Ebenaceae sensu lato: evidence from six plastid DNA regions.
''American Journal of Botany'' 93(12), 1808-27.

Etymology

The family name Ebenaceae is based on the genus name ''Ebenus'', published by Otto Kuntze in 1891. It is a later homonym of ''

Ebenus ''Ebenus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae The Faboideae are a subfamily of the flowering plant family Fabaceae or Leguminosae. An acceptable alternative name for the subfamily is P ...

'' L., a genus already named in the family

Fabaceae The Fabaceae or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomenc ...

, and is thus '' nomen illegitimum''. The plant that Kuntze had named ''Ebenus'' was accordingly reassigned to the genus ''Maba'', which in turn has since been included in the genus ''Diospyros''. Because the name Ebenaceae had become well known, having been used in major botanical references such as Bentham and Hooker's '' Genera Plantarum'', Engler and Prantl's ''Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'', and Hutchinson's ''Families of Flowering Plants'', it was conserved and is therefore legitimate.

Genera

During the last century, seven genera have been included in the family at one time or another. One phylogenetic analysis reduced the family to four genera:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q156669 Ericales families