Pedaliaceae, the pedalium family or sesame family, is a

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 ...

family classified 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 into about 25 families. These families include Acanthaceae, Big ...

. The family includes sesame (''Sesamum indicum''), the source of sesame seeds. It comprises 13 genera and approximately 70 species. Eight genera are native to the African continent and one genus (''Uncarina'') is endemic to

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. Four genera (''Sesamum'', ''Josephinia'', ''Pedalium'' and ''Dicerocaryum'') are mainly African natives but they also include regions to the east (including Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Malayan Islands and northern Australia).Ib Friis and Olof Ryding (Editors) The family has a diverse range of seed and fruit dispersal throughout the various species. Including; animal dispersal via burrs, carried by feet (in ''Dicerocaryum'', ''Harpagophytum'' and ''Josephinia'') or caught in the fur of passing animals (''Uncarina''), winged fruits using the wind for dispersal (''Holubia'' and ''Pterodiscus''), or even winged seeds (''Sesamothamnus'' and ''Sesamum'') or via wind-ballists (''Ceratotheca'' and ''Rogeria''). Wind-ballists are when the fruits open at the top but stay on the plant, then as the stems produce strong movements, the seeds are then gradually expelled.

Taxonomy

The family is in the order

, as confirmed by the most recent classification of the

APG IV system The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was published ...

. The historical

Cronquist system The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in a series of monographs and texts, including ''The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants'' (1968; 2nd edition, 1988) ...

placed the family in the

Scrophulariales 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, Big ...

. Cronquist included the family Martyniaceae in Pedaliaceae, but phylogenetic studies have shown that the two families are not closely related and they are maintained as separate by the APG. Both families are characterized by having

mucilaginous Mucilage is a thick, gluey substance produced by nearly all plants and some microorganisms. These microorganisms include protists which use it for their locomotion. The direction of their movement is always opposite to that of the secretion of ...

hairs, which often give the stems and leaves a slimy or clammy feel, and often have fruits with hooks or horns.

Gallery of Pedaliaceae

Whiteflowers5.jpg, '' Ceratotheca triloba'' Harpagophytum 5.jpg, '' Harpagophytum procumbens'' Devil Thorn (Dicerocaryum senecioides) (11906133876).jpg, '' Dicerocaryum senecioides'' (Devil Thorn) Pedalium murex MS6569.jpg, '' Pedalium murex'' Josephinia eugeniae flower2.jpg , '' Josephinia eugeniae'' Rogeria longiflora.jpg, '' Rogeria longiflora'' Sesamum indicum fructus.jpg, ''

Sesamum indicum Sesame ( or ; ''Sesamum indicum'') is a flowering plant in the genus '' Sesamum'', also called benne. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cu ...

'' Uncarina_grandidieri01.jpg, ''

Uncarina grandidieri ''Uncarina'' is a genus of plant in the family Pedaliaceae found in Madagascar. Etymology The genera name is derived from the Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, ...

'' Uncarina ankaranensis MHNT.jpg, '' Uncarina ankaranensis'' Pterodiscus elliottii02.jpg, '' Pterodiscus elliottii''

References

Lamiales families {{Lamiales-stub