Thymelaeaceae

 Spurge flax Thymelaea passerina, photographed by Václav Dvořák.

Belongs within: Malvales.
Contains: Pimelea, Passerina.

The Thymelaeaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants containing the daphnes and related species, most of which are shrubs or small trees. They are often toxic to humans with some such as mezereum Daphne mezereum acting as violent cathartics. Many species of the family have fibrous bark that is used to make high quality paper. Species of Daphne are cultivated for their fragrant flowers.

Flowers typically lack petals though they are represented by scales around the calyx tube in Aquilaria.

Characters (Wang et al.): Shrubs or small trees, rarely herbs, evergreen or deciduous. Bark tough and fibrous. Leaves opposite or alternate, rarely some ternate, estipulate; blade simple, entire, pinnately veined, articulate at base. Plants mostly bisexual, sometimes dioecious. Inflorescences terminal or subterminal, less often axillary, sometimes on brachyblasts, sessile or pedunculate, basically racemose, sometimes capitate, spicate, umbelliform, or fascicled. Flowers usually actinomorphic, bisexual or unisexual (plants then mostly dioecious), bracteate (sometimes bracts forming an involucre) or ebracteate, sessile or pedicellate. Calyx tubular, campanulate, or infundibuliform, usually corollalike, 4- or 5(or 6)-merous, mostly caducous, sometimes circumscissile, or persistent; lobes imbricate. Petals absent or represented by 4–12 scales, inserted at or near throat of calyx tube (Aquilaria). Stamens 2 to many, usually as many as calyx lobes and opposite them or twice as many. Hypognous disk usually present at base of ovary, scalelike, annular or cup-shaped, sometimes absent. Ovary superior, 1- or 2-loculed, sessile or shortly stipitate; ovules solitary in each locule, pendulous, anatropous; style filiform, caducous, sometimes very short or obscure, terminal or eccentric; stigma capitate, globose, subglobose, subclavate, or pyramidal, sometimes papilose. Fruit mostly indehiscent, dry or fleshy, sometimes a loculicidal capsule (Aquilaria). Seeds with or without endosperm, embryo straight.

<==Thymelaeaceae [Thymeleae]
|--AquilariaCBH93 [AquilarioideaeT00]
|--Synandrodaphne [Gilgiodaphnoideae]T00
`--ThymelaeaWM09 [ThymelaeoideaeT00]
|--T. hirsutaP05
|--T. passerinaH91
|--T. sanamundaWM09
`--T. tartonraira (Linnaeus) Allioni 1785PL04
|--T. t. ssp. tartonrairaPT98
`--T. t. ssp. argenteaPT98

Thymelaeaceae incertae sedis:
GnidieaeH03
|--Gnidia squarrosaH90
`--Kelleria Endl. 1848H03, KC01
|--K. dieffenbachii Endl. 1847H90, A61 (see below for synonymy)
|--K. ericoidesH03
|--K. laxaW91
`--K. patulaH03
PhaleriaH90
|--P. capitataH03
`--P. chermsideanaH90
DaphnopsisJ87
|--D. americanaJ87
| |--D. a. ssp. americanaJ87
| `--D. a. ssp. tinifoliaJ87
`--D. crassifoliaJ87
FuniferaYY22
HyptiodaphneYY22
Lagetta linteariaC06
Wikstroemia indicaH90
PimeleaA61
Drapetes Banks 1792A61
|--D. ericoidesP88
|--D. laxus (Cheeseman) Allan 1961 [=D. dieffenbachii var. laxa Cheeseman 1906]A61
|--D. lyallii Hook. f. 1853 (see below for synonymy)A61
|--D. multiflorus (Cheeseman) Allan 1961 [=D. villosa var. multiflora Cheeseman 1906]A61
|--D. tasmanicaC06
`--D. villosus (Bergg.) Cheeseman 1906 [=Kelleria villosa Bergg. 1877]A61
Stellera chamaejasmeO88
DaphneC06
|--D. blagayanaH09
|--D. calycinaR00
|--D. cneorumH09
|--D. gnidioidesP05
|--D. laureolaH59
|--D. mezereumC55
|--D. pillopilloD03
`--D. vermiculataR00
Diplomorpha Meisner 1841FT93
PasserinaBW06
LachnaeaBW06
DicranolepideaeH85
|--DicranolepidinaeH85
`--LinostomatinaeH85
|--Linostoma Wall. 1831KC01
`--Enkleia paniculataH85, H03
ThecanthesLK14
|--T. concretaLK14
|--T. puniceaLK14
`--T. sanguineaLK14
Dirca occidentalisH93
Daphnites goepperti Ettingshausen 1867CBH93
ThymelaeaspermumCBH93
Pseudospinaepollis pseudospinosus Krutzsch 1966CBH93
Lachnea L. 1753KC01
EudaphniphyllumP92

Drapetes lyallii Hook. f. 1853 [=Kelleria dieffenbachii var. lyallii Meissn. in DC. 1857; incl. D. muscosa Hook. f. 1854 non D. muscosus Lam. 1792]A61

Kelleria dieffenbachii Endl. 1847H90, A61 [=Drapetes dieffenbachii Hook. 1843A61; incl. D. macrantha Col. 1890A61, Kelleria tasmanicaH90]

*Type species of generic name indicated

References

[A61] Allan, H. H. 1961. Flora of New Zealand vol. 1. Indigenous Tracheophyta: Psilopsida, Lycopsida, Filicopsida, Gymnospermae, Dicotyledones. R. E. Owen, Government Printer: Wellington (New Zealand).

[BW06] Bredenkamp, C. L., & A. E. Van Wyk. 2006. Phytogeography of Passerina (Thymelaeaceae). Bothalia 36 (2): 191–199.

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[CBH93] Collinson, M. E., M. C. Boulter & P. L. Holmes. 1993. Magnoliophyta (‘Angiospermae’). In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 809–841. Chapman & Hall: London.

[D03] Dusén, P. 1903. The vegetation of western Patagonia. In: Scott, W. B. (ed.) Reports of the Princeton University Expeditions to Patagonia, 1896–1899 vol. 8. Botany pp. 1–34. The University: Princeton (New Jersey).

[FT93] Fensome, R. A., F. J. R. Taylor, G. Norris, W. A. S. Sarjeant, D. I. Wharton & G. L. Williams. 1993. A classification of living and fossil dinoflagellates. Micropaleontology Special Publication 7: i–viii, 1–351.

[H90] Harden, G. J. (ed.) 1990. Flora of New South Wales vol. 1. New South Wales University Press.

[H85] Heads, M. 1985. On the nature of ancestors. Systematic Zoology 34 (2): 205–215.

[H03] Heads, M. 2003. Ericaceae in Malesia: vicariance biogeography, terrane tectonics and ecology. Telopea 10 (1): 311–449.

[H59] Healy, A. J. 1959. Contributions to a knowledge of the adventive flora of New Zealand, no. 7. Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 86 (1): 113–118.

[H09] Heltmann, H. 2009. Der Königstein (Piatra Craiului), die Perle der Burzenländer Gebirge. Mauritiana 20 (3): 515–527.

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).

[H91] Hubálek, Z. 1991. Biogeographic indication of natural foci of tick-borne infections. In: Dusbábek, F., & V. Bukva (eds) Modern Acarology: Proceedings of the VIII International Congress of Acarology, held in České Budĕjovice, Czechoslovakia, 6–11 August 1990 vol. 1 pp. 255–260. SPB Academic Publishing: The Hague.

[J87] Judd, W. S. 1987. Floristic study of Morne La Visite and Pic Macaya National Parks, Haiti. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum—Biological Sciences 32 (1): 1–136.

[KC01] Kirk, P. M., P. F. Cannon, J. C. David & J. A. Stalpers. 2001. Ainsworth & Bisby’s Dictionary of the Fungi 9th ed. CAB International: Wallingford (UK).

[LK14] Lyons, M. N., G. J. Keighery, L. A. Gibson & T. Handasyde. 2014. Flora and vegetation communities of selected islands off the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 81: 205–244.

[O88] Ohba, H. 1988. The alpine flora of the Nepal Himalayas: an introductory note. In: Ohba, H., & S. B. Malla (eds) The Himalayan Plants vol. 1. The University Museum, University of Tokyo, Bulletin 31: 19–46.

[PT98] Panitsa, M., & D. Tzanoudakis. 1998. Contribution to the study of the Greek flora: flora and vegetation of the E Aegean islands Agathonisi and Pharmakonisi. Willdenowia 28: 95–116.

[P05] Papapavlou, K. P. 2005. New distributional data on the Orthoptera (Saltatoria) of the northern Dodecanese (“southern Sporadhes”) archipelago, Greece. Graellsia 61 (1): 3–11.

[PL04] Pohl, G., & I. Lenski. 2004. Zur Verbreitung und Vergesellschaftung von Pennisetum orientale Rich. in Nordeuböa (Griechenland) (Poaceae, Paniceae). Senckenbergiana Biologica 83 (2): 209–223.

[P92] Poinar, G. O., Jr. 1992. Life in Amber. Stanford University Press: Stanford.

[P88] Polunin, I. 1988. Plants and Flowers of Malaysia. Times Editions: Singapore.

[R00] Ramond, C. 1800. Plantes inédites des Hautes-Pyrénées. Bulletin des Sciences, par la Societé Philomathique de Paris 2 (41): 129–133.

[T00] Thorne, R. F. 2000. The classification and geography of the flowering plants: dicotyledons of the class Angiospermae (subclasses Magnoliidae, Ranunculidae, Caryophyllidae, Dilleniidae, Rosidae, Asteridae, and Lamiidae). The Botanical Review 66: 441–647.

[WM09] Wang, H., M. J. Moore, P. S. Soltis, C. D. Bell, S. F. Brockington, R. Alexandre, C. C. Davis, M. Latvis, S. R. Manchester & D. E. Soltis. 2009. Rosid radiation and the rapid rise of angiosperm-dominated forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 106 (10): 3853–3858.

[W91] Williams, P. A. 1991. Subalpine and alpine vegetation of granite ranges in western Nelson, New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Botany 29: 317–330.

[YY22] Yampolsky, C., & H. Yampolsky. 1922. Distribution of sex forms in the phanerogamic flora. Bibliotheca Genetica 3: 1–62.

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