The Surianaceae are a family of plants in the order
Fabales
The Fabales are an order (biology), order of flowering plants included in the Rosids, rosid group of the eudicots in the APG II system, Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II classification system. In the APG II circumscription, this order includes the f ...
with five genera and eight known species.
It has an unusual distribution: the genus ''
Recchia'' is native to
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, and the sole member of ''
Suriana
''Suriana'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants containing only ''Suriana maritima'', which is commonly known as bay cedar. Distribution
It has a pantropical distribution and can be found on coasts in the New and Old World tropics.
Descri ...
'', ''
S. maritima'', is a coastal plant with a
pantropical
A pantropical ("all tropics") distribution is one which covers Tropics, tropical regions of both hemispheres. Examples of species include caecilians, modern sirenians and the plant genera ''Acacia'' and ''Bacopa''.
''Neotropical'' is a zoogeogra ...
distribution; and the remaining three genera are endemic to
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
They range in form from small shrubs to tall trees.
Systematics
Modern
molecular phylogenetics
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 ...
suggest the following relationships:
Species
References
Rosid families
{{Rosid-stub