Corsiaceae is a family of monocotyledon

Monocotyledon

Monocotyledons, also known as monocots, are one of two major groups of flowering plants that are traditionally recognized, the other being dicotyledons, or dicots. Monocot seedlings typically have one cotyledon , in contrast to the two cotyledons typical of dicots...

ous flowering plants. The APG II system

APG II system

The APG 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 Group. It was a revision of the first APG system, published in 1998, and was superseded in 2009...

 (2003) treats the family in the order Liliales

Liliales

Liliales is an order of monocotyledonous flowering plants. This order of necessity includes the family Liliaceae, but both the family and the order have had a widely disputed history, with the circumscription varying greatly from one taxonomist to another...

, in the clade monocots. This is a slight change from the APG system

APG system

The APG system of plant classification is the first, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy that was published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. It was superseded in 2003 by a revision, the APG II system, and then in 2009 by a further...

, of 1998, which left the family unplaced as to order, but did assign it also to the monocots.

Genera

The family is usually taken to include three genera, Corsia, Corsiopsis, and Arachnitis

Arachnitis

Arachnitis uniflora, the sole species in the genus Arachnitis, is a non-photosynthetic species of plant. It is a myco-heterotroph which gets many of its nutrients from fungi of the genus Glomus which live in its roots....

. As the members of this family are non-autotrophic herbs (i.e. they are not green, and do not photosynthesize) they have sometimes been included in the family Burmanniaceae

Burmanniaceae

Burmanniaceae is a botanical name of a family of flowering plants, consisting of about a hundred species of herbaceous plants in roughly a dozen genera. Often they are quite remarkable plants, more often red than green, without much leaf area and not growing very big in any way.The APG II system,...

 which, however, according to APG II is not even in the same order. The APG companion site cites a reference which suggests the family should consist of Corsia only, with Arachnitis better placed nearer to family Burmanniaceae. Corsiopsis, like Arachnitis a monotypic genus, has been described recently.

Genera and species

• Arachnitis
  Arachnitis
  Arachnitis uniflora, the sole species in the genus Arachnitis, is a non-photosynthetic species of plant. It is a myco-heterotroph which gets many of its nutrients from fungi of the genus Glomus which live in its roots....
  
  Phil., 1864
  • Arachnitis uniflora
• Corsia Becc., 1877
  • Corsia acuminata
  • Corsia arfakensis
  • Corsia boridiensis
  • Corsia brassii
  • Corsia clypeata
  • Corsia cordata
  • Corsia cornuta
  • Corsia crenata
  • Corsia cyclopensis
  • Corsia haianjensis
  • Corsia huonensis
  • Corsia lamellata
  • Corsia merimantaensis
  • Corsia ornata
  • Corsia papuana
  • Corsia purpurata
  • Corsia pyramidata
  • Corsia resiensis
  • Corsia torricellensis
  • Corsia triceratops
  • Corsia unguiculata
  • Corsia viridopurpurea
  • Corsia wubungu
• Corsiopsis D.X.Zhang, R.M.K.Saunders & C.M.Hu, 1999
  • Corsiopsis chinensis

External links

• Corsiaceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards), The families of flowering plants.
• NCBI Taxonomy Browser
• links at CSDL, Texas