Caprifoliaceae
Encyclopedia
The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade
consisting of about 800 dicotyledon
ous flowering plant
s, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution
; centres of diversity are found in eastern North America
and eastern Asia
, while they are absent in tropical and southern Africa
.
They are mostly shrub
s and vine
s, rarely herbs, including some ornamental garden plants in temperate regions. The leaves
are mostly opposite with no stipules (appendages at the base of a leafstalk or petiole
), and may be either evergreen
or deciduous
. The flower
s are tubular funnel-shaped or bell-like, usually with five outward spreading lobes or points, and are often fragrant. They usually form a small calyx with small bracts. The fruit
is in most cases a berry
or a drupe
. The genera Diervilla and Weigela have capsular
fruit.
has been considerably revised in recent decades. Most botanists now accept the placement of two of the most familiar members of this group, the elderberry (Sambucus) and the viburnums Viburnum
, in the family Adoxaceae
instead, along with some other genera related to them, these were formerly classified in the Caprifoliaceae.
Several other families of the more broadly treated Caprifoliaceae are separated by some but not all authors; these are included in the listing below of an evolutionary classification of the Dipsacales, along with estimated numbers of species for each genus.
Adoxaceae
Diervilleae
Heptacodium [Family placement uncertain]
Caprifoliaceae [Viewed narrowly here]
Linnaeaceae
Morinaceae
Dipsacaceae
Triplostegia [Family placement uncertain]
Valerianaceae
The following genera are no longer included in the order Dipsacales in current classifications:
shrubs or vines, many popular garden shrubs, especially Abelia, Lonicera, and Weigela. A few have become invasive weeds outside of their native ranges (such as Lonicera japonica).
Clade
A clade is a group consisting of a species and all its descendants. In the terms of biological systematics, a clade is a single "branch" on the "tree of life". The idea that such a "natural group" of organisms should be grouped together and given a taxonomic name is central to biological...
consisting of about 800 dicotyledon
Dicotyledon
The dicotyledons, also known as dicots, are a group of flowering plants whose seed typically has two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. There are around 199,350 species within this group...
ous flowering plant
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
s, with a nearly cosmopolitan distribution
Cosmopolitan distribution
In biogeography, a taxon is said to have a cosmopolitan distribution if its range extends across all or most of the world in appropriate habitats. For instance, the killer whale has a cosmopolitan distribution, extending over most of the world's oceans. Other examples include humans, the lichen...
; centres of diversity are found in eastern North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and eastern Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, while they are absent in tropical and southern Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
They are mostly shrub
Shrub
A shrub or bush is distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and shorter height, usually under 5–6 m tall. A large number of plants may become either shrubs or trees, depending on the growing conditions they experience...
s and vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
s, rarely herbs, including some ornamental garden plants in temperate regions. The leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are mostly opposite with no stipules (appendages at the base of a leafstalk or petiole
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
), and may be either evergreen
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
or deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
. The flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
s are tubular funnel-shaped or bell-like, usually with five outward spreading lobes or points, and are often fragrant. They usually form a small calyx with small bracts. The fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
is in most cases a berry
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
or a drupe
Drupe
In botany, a drupe is a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. These fruits develop from a single carpel, and mostly from flowers with superior ovaries...
. The genera Diervilla and Weigela have capsular
Capsule (fruit)
In botany a capsule is a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. A capsule is a structure composed of two or more carpels that in most cases is dehiscent, i.e. at maturity, it splits apart to release the seeds within. A few capsules are indehiscent, for example...
fruit.
Taxonomy
Views of the family-level classification of the traditionally accepted Caprifoliaceae and other plants in the botanical order DipsacalesDipsacales
The Dipsacales are an order of flowering plants, included within the asterid group of dicotyledons.Under the Cronquist system, the order included Adoxaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Dipsacaceae, and Valerianaceae. Under the more recent Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, the circumscription of the order is...
has been considerably revised in recent decades. Most botanists now accept the placement of two of the most familiar members of this group, the elderberry (Sambucus) and the viburnums Viburnum
Viburnum
Viburnum is a genus of about 150–175 species of shrubs or small trees in the moschatel family, Adoxaceae. Its current classification is based on molecular phylogeny...
, in the family Adoxaceae
Adoxaceae
The Adoxaceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Dipsacales, as now constituted comprising four genera and about 150-200 species. It is characterised by opposite toothed leaves, small five- or, more rarely, four-petalled flowers in cymose inflorescences, and the fruit being a drupe...
instead, along with some other genera related to them, these were formerly classified in the Caprifoliaceae.
Several other families of the more broadly treated Caprifoliaceae are separated by some but not all authors; these are included in the listing below of an evolutionary classification of the Dipsacales, along with estimated numbers of species for each genus.
Adoxaceae
- Adoxa: 1 species
- Sambucus (Elderberry): 5-30 species
- ViburnumViburnumViburnum is a genus of about 150–175 species of shrubs or small trees in the moschatel family, Adoxaceae. Its current classification is based on molecular phylogeny...
(Viburnum): 150-175 species
Diervilleae
- Diervilla (Bush Honeysuckle): 3 species
- WeigelaWeigelaWeigela is a small genus of about 12 species of deciduous shrubs in the family Caprifoliaceae, growing to 1-5 m tall. All are natives of eastern Asia. The genus is named after the German scientist Christian Ehrenfried Weigel....
: 10 species.
Heptacodium [Family placement uncertain]
- HeptacodiumHeptacodiumHeptacodium is a genus of plant in family Caprifoliaceae, comprising just the one species found in China:* Heptacodium miconioides, Rehder...
(Seven-son Flower): 1 species
Caprifoliaceae [Viewed narrowly here]
- LeycesteriaLeycesteriaLeycesteria is a genus of flowering plants in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae, native to temperate Asia in the Himalaya and southwestern China.It contains six or seven species of shrubs with short-lived stems with soft wood, growing to 1-2.5 m tall...
: 6 species - Lonicera (Honeysuckle): 180 species
- SymphoricarposSymphoricarposSymphoricarpos, with common names in English of Snowberry, Waxberry or Ghostberry, is a small genus of about 15 species of deciduous shrubs in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae. All species are natives of North and Central America, except one native to western China...
(Snowberry): 17 species - TriosteumTriosteumTriosteum, commonly known as horse gentian or, less commonly, feverwort, is a genus of flowering plant which includes six species. It is in the Caprifoliaceae family. A genus of six species total, it has three species native to North America, and three more in China and Japan.These are perennial,...
(Horsegentian): 6 species
Linnaeaceae
- AbeliaAbeliaAbelia is a genus of about 15-30 species and many hybrids in the honeysuckle family Caprifoliaceae Some authors, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, considers Abelia and related genera to belong instead in the segregate family Linnaeaceae, also including such genera as Linnaea, Abelia,...
: 30 species - Dipelta: 4 species
- Kolkwitzia (Beautybush): 1 species
- Linnaea (Twinflower): 1 species
Morinaceae
- Cryptothladia
- MorinaMorina----Morina is a genus of the angiosperm family Morinaceae. It is the provincial flower of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Morina is named in honor of Louis-Pierre Morin , a french physician and botanist....
Dipsacaceae
Dipsacaceae
The Dipsacaceae, or teasel family, of the order Dipsacales contains 350 species of perennial or biennial herbs and shrubs in eleven genera. Native to most temperate climates, they are found in Europe, Asia and Africa...
- AcanthocalyxAcanthocalyxAcanthocalyx is a genus of about three species of vegetation in the family Dipsacaceae, sometimes included in Morinaceae, native to Sino-HimalayanRegion.Species*Acanthocalyx alba M.J.Cannon...
- PterocephalusPterocephalusPterocephalus is a genus in the Dipsacaceae family of herbs and shrubs, comprising 25 species ranging from the Mediterranean, to central Asia, the Himalayas, western China, and tropical Africa.-Species:*P. arabicus*P. bretschneideri...
- DipsacusDipsacusDipsacus is a genus of flowering plant in the family Dipsacaceae. The members of this genus are known as teasel or teazel or teazle. The genus includes about 15 species of tall herbaceous biennial plants growing to tall...
- ScabiosaScabiosaScabiosa is a genus in the teasel Family Dipsacaceae of flowering plants. Many of the species in this genus have common names that include the word scabious; however some plants commonly known as scabious are currently classified in related genera such as Knautia and Succisa; at least some of...
Triplostegia [Family placement uncertain]
- Triplostegia
Valerianaceae
Valerianaceae
The Valerianaceae, or valerian family, of the order Dipsacales contains about 350 species in 7 genera. Plants are generally herbaceous and foliage often has a strong, disagreeable odor. They are found native in most regions of the world except for Australia...
- Patrina
- Nardostachys
- CentranthusCentranthusCentranthus is a flowering plant genus comprising herbs and subshrubs native to Southern Europe. It is in the Caprifoliaceae family. There are about twelve species in the genus...
- PlectritisPlectritisPlectritis is a genus of plants in the valerian family. There are only three to five species. They are known generally as seablushes, and they are native to western North America. These are unassuming annual plants with thin, erect stems with few leaves and bearing a terminal inflorescence of flowers...
- ValerianaValerianaValeriana is a genus of flowering plants in the family Valerianaceae. It includes a number of species of which the best known is the garden valerian Valeriana officinalis...
- ValerianellaValerianellaValerianella is a genus of plant in family Valerianaceae. Many plants of this genus are known by the common name corn salad, although that name most often refers to Valerianella locusta.Here is an incomplete list of its species:...
- Fedia
The following genera are no longer included in the order Dipsacales in current classifications:
- Order AsteralesAsteralesAsterales is an order of dicotyledonous flowering plants that includes the composite family and its related families.The order is a cosmopolite, and includes mostly herbaceous species, although a small number of trees and shrubs are also present.The Asterales can be characterized on the...
(these genera regarded by some as belonging to a separate family AlseuosmiaceaeAlseuosmiaceaeAlseuosmiaceae is a plant family of the order Asterales, found in Australia, New Caledonia and New Zealand.They are shrubs with simple, alternate leaves, spiral or whorled, with entire or dentate margins. The solitary flowers are terminal or axillary, or aggregated in fascicles and rarely in...
)- AlseuosmiaAlseuosmiaAlseuosmia is a plant genus in the family Alseuosmiaceae. Species members are characteristically small evergreen shrubs. An example occurrence of species representative Alseuosmia macrophylla is in the New Zealand North Island habitat of the Hamilton Ecological District, where Blechnum discolor and...
: 8 species - Memecylanthus: 1 species
- Periomphale: 2 species
- Alseuosmia
- Order LamialesLamialesLamiales is an order in the asterid group of dicotyledonous flowering plants. It includes approximately 11,000 species divided into about 20 families...
(these genera regarded by some as belonging to a separate family CarlemanniaceaeCarlemanniaceaeThe Carlemanniaceae are a tropical East Asian and Southeast Asian family of subshrub to herbaceous perennial flowering plants with 2 genera. Older systems of plant taxonomy place the two genera, Carlemannia, and Silvianthus within the Caprifoliaceae or the Rubiaceae...
)- Carlemannia: 3 species
- Silvianthus: 2 species
Uses
The plants belonging to this family are mainly hardy ornamentalOrnamental plant
Ornamental plants are plants that are grown for decorative purposes in gardens and landscape design projects, as house plants, for cut flowers and specimen display...
shrubs or vines, many popular garden shrubs, especially Abelia, Lonicera, and Weigela. A few have become invasive weeds outside of their native ranges (such as Lonicera japonica).
External links
- Caprifoliaceae in Topwalks
- Caprifoliaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. http://delta-intkey.com
- Concordance of Angiosperm Family Names
- Species account : Caprifoliaceae
- Comparison Table for the Cornidae