Resedaceae is a family of mostly

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition o ...

dicotyledon The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, t ...

ous plants comprising 107 known species in 8 to 12 genera: *''

Borthwickia ''Borthwickia'' is genus of flowering plants, containing one species, ''Borthwickia trifoliata'' from Yunnan, China and Myanmar. The common name in Chinese is 节蒴木 (jie shuo mu). It is a shrub or small tree with evergreen trifoliate leaves, ...

'' - 1 species, sometimes placed in its own family

Borthwickiaceae ''Borthwickia'' is genus of flowering plants, containing one species, ''Borthwickia trifoliata'' from Yunnan, China and Myanmar. The common name in Chinese is 节蒴木 (jie shuo mu). It is a shrub or small tree with evergreen trifoliate leaves, ...

*''

Caylusea The plant genus ''Caylusea'' is a small group of plants found in parts of Africa and India. '' Caylusea abyssinica'' is eaten as a vegetable. Selected species * '' Caylusea abyssinica'' Fisch. & C.A.Mey. * '' Caylusea canescens'' Webb * '' Cay ...

'' - 3 species *''

Forchhammeria ''Forchhammeria'' is a genus of plants in the order Brassicales. This genus has previously been placed in the Stixaceae (now obsolete) and Capparaceae, but under the APG IV system is now included in the family Resedaceae. Species can be found i ...

'' - 10 species *''Homalodiscus'' - 2 species *''

Neothorelia ''Neothorelia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Capparaceae. The only species is ''Neothorelia laotica'' . It is native to Laos in Indo-China. The genus name of ''Neothorelia'' is in honour of Clovis Thorel ...

'' - 1 species *''

Ochradenus ''Ochradenus'' is a genus of plant in family Resedaceae Resedaceae is a family of mostly herbaceous dicotyledonous plants comprising 107 known species in 8 to 12 genera: *'' Borthwickia'' - 1 species, sometimes placed in its own family Borthw ...

'' - 4 species *''

Oligomeris ''Oligomeris'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Resedaceae. Its native range includes the southwestern United States, Mexico, Southern and Northern Africa, Somalia, Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , ...

'' - 3 species *''

Randonia ''Randonia'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Resedaceae. The only species is ''Randonia africana''. Its native range is Sahara desert in northern Africa. It is found in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco ...

'' - 1 species *'' Reseda'' - ca 55 species *''

Sesamoides ''Sesamoides'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Resedaceae Resedaceae is a family of mostly herbaceous dicotyledonous plants comprising 107 known species in 8 to 12 genera: *'' Borthwickia'' - 1 species, sometimes placed i ...

'' - 1 species *'' Stixis'' - 7 species *''

Tirania ''Tirania purpurea'', the sole species in genus ''Tirania'', is a species of climbing plant native to Asia. This genus is related to ''Forchhammeria'' and '' Stixis'', but the placement of these three is uncertain. They were placed in Capparace ...

'' 1 species

Taxonomy

Roman natural phylosopher Gaius Plinius Secundus or

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

, who lived in the first century, is attributed to have used the name ''Reseda'' for the first time in writing. But he must have used it for another plant, because the medial effect of healing swellings and inflamations that he described, could not be reproduced from ''Reseda'' by later researcher. The British botanist Samuel Frederick Gray erected the family Resedaceae in 1821, based on the type genus ''Reseda'' as validly described by

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, ...

. Recent molecular studies suggest that ''Oligomeris'', ''Randonia'' and ''Ochradenus'' all arose from within the ranks of ''Reseda''. This would imply that only three genera should be recognized, although as yet no nomenclatural changes have been made. The family includes annuals,

biennials A biennial plant is a flowering plant that, generally in a temperate climate, takes two years to complete its biological life cycle. Life cycle In its first year, the biennal plant undergoes primary growth, during which its vegetative structures ...

and perennials and is distributed in

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 ...

to sub-tropical regions of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, western

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Wit ...

, the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. Resedaceae were placed under the

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) ...

in the order Capparales. The

APG II system The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in April 2003 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Gr ...

places it in the order Brassicales. In APG IV (2016) it was expanded to include the genera ''

'' (formerly

), ''

'', '' Stixis'', and ''

'' (formerly Stixidaceae) and ''Forchhammeria'' (formerly in

Capparaceae The Capparaceae (or Capparidaceae), commonly known as the caper family, are a family of plants in the order Brassicales. As currently circumscribed, the family contains 33 genera and about 700 species. The largest genera are ''Capparis'' (about ...

)

References

Brassicales families {{Brassicales-stub