Lepidobotryaceae is 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 ...

of plants in the order

Celastrales The Celastrales are an order of flowering plants found throughout the tropics and subtropics, with only a few species extending far into the temperate regions. The 1200"Lepidobotryaceae", "Parnassiaceae", and "Celastraceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki ( ...

."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 trees. The leaves are alternate and arranged in two rows along the stems. The blade is elliptical in shape and the margin is

entire Entire may refer to: * Entire function, a function that is holomorphic on the whole complex plane * Entire (animal), an indication that an animal is not neutered * Entire (botany) This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of ...

. The leaves appear

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 ...

, but are actually unifoliate. A unifoliate leaf is a type of

compound leaf 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 ...

that consists of a single leaflet mounted on the end of a

rachis In biology, a rachis (from the grc, ῥάχις [], "backbone, spine") is a main axis or "shaft". In zoology and microbiology In vertebrates, ''rachis'' can refer to the series of articulated vertebrae, which encase the spinal cord. In this c ...

. 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 and a pair of small stipules 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

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphology (biology), Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of sperma ...

s 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

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coine ...

s and five petals. 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 nectary disk is fleshy in ''Lepidobotrys'', but extended into a tube in ''Ruptiliocarpon''. The stamens are in two

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

of five, one whorl opposite the sepals and the other opposite the petals. Those in the outer whorl, opposite the sepals, are longer. The filaments are fused at the base, shortly in ''Lepidobotrys'', but forming an extension of the tubular nectary in ''Ruptiliocarpon''. The pollen is produced in four

theca In biology, a theca (plural thecae) is a sheath or a covering. Botany In botany, the theca is related to plant's flower anatomy. The theca of an angiosperm consists of a pair of microsporangia that are adjacent to each other and share a comm ...

e on each anther. The stigmas are elongated, appearing as false

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

s, known as stylodia. The ovary is located inside the flower, rather than below. It has two or three locules, with two

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 ...

s 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. In 2000, a DNA analysis of the eudicots based on the ''rbcL'' gene showed that the families Lepidobotryaceae,

Parnassiaceae Parnassiaceae Gray were a family of flowering plants in the eudicot order Celastrales.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. (2007). Th ...

, and

Celastraceae The Celastraceae (staff-vine or bittersweet) are a family of 97 genera and 1,350 species of herbs, vines, shrubs and small trees, belonging to the order Celastrales. The great majority of the genera are tropical, with only ''Celastrus'' (the sta ...

form a strongly supported clade.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, 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 The Malpighiales comprise one of the largest orders of flowering plants, containing about 36 families and more than species, about 7.8% of the eudicots. The order is very diverse, containing plants as different as the willow, violet, poinsett ...

and

Oxalidales Oxalidales is an order of flowering plants, included within the rosid subgroup of eudicots. Compound leaves are common in Oxalidales and the majority of the species in this order have five or six sepals and petals. The following families are typic ...

, respectively, which are closely related to Celastrales. The orders Celastrales, Oxalidales, and Malpighiales, along with the unplaced family

Huaceae Huaceae is a family of plant in the rosids group, which has been classed in the orders Malpighiales, Malvales, and Violales or in its own order Huales. The APG II system placed it in the clade eurosids I, whereas the APG III system of 2009 and ...

form a group known as the COM clade of the

rosids The rosids are members of a large clade (monophyletic group) of flowering plants, containing about 70,000 species, more than a quarter of all angiosperms. The clade is divided into 16 to 20 orders, depending upon circumscription and classificati ...

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