Cyrillaceae is a small family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of 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 in the order Ericales

Ericales

The Ericales are a large and diverse order of dicotyledons, including for example tea, persimmon, blueberry, Brazil nut, and azalea. The order includes trees and bushes, lianas and herbaceous plants. Together with ordinary autophytic plants, the Ericales include chlorophyll-deficient...

, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

. The family comprises two genera, each with a single species, Cyrilla racemiflora

Cyrilla

Cyrilla racemiflora, the sole species in the genus Cyrilla, is a flowering plant in the family Cyrillaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas, from the southeastern United States , south through the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America to northern Brazil and...

and Cliftonia monophylla.

In the past, many botanists included a third genus Purdiaea

Purdiaea

Purdiaea is a genus of 11-19 species of flowering plants in the family Clethraceae. It is one of two genera in this family, and was formerly classified in the related family Cyrillaceae...

in the family, though recent research has shown this genus is better placed in the closely related family Clethraceae

Clethraceae

Clethraceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Ericales, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Asia and the Americas, with one species also on Madeira...

(Anderberg & Zhang 2002).