Gerrardina

Gerrardina
Gerrardina foliosa
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Huerteales
Family: Gerrardinaceae
M.H.Alford[1]
Genus: Gerrardina
Oliv.
Species

Gerrardina eylesiana
Gerrardina foliosa

Gerrardina is a genus of two species of trees, shrubs, and scrambling shrubs found in southeastern Africa. Until recently, the genus was placed in the polyphyletic family Flacourtiaceae, but it was abnormal there due to its apical placentation, small embryos, and mucilaginous foliar epidermis. Analyses of DNA data indicated that the genus did not fit in any known plant family and not clearly in any then-recognized order, and a new family, Gerrardinaceae, was thus created for it.[2] Later analyses of additional DNA data[3] and data from wood anatomy [4] indicated that the family should be placed in the order Huerteales.

  1. ^ Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x. hdl:10654/18083.
  2. ^ Alford, M. H. 2006. Gerrardinaceae: a new family of African flowering plants unresolved among Brassicales, Huerteales, Malvales, and Sapindales. Taxon 55: 959-964.
  3. ^ Worberg, A., M. H. Alford, D. Quandt, and T. Borsch. 2009. Huerteales sister to Brassicales plus Malvales, and newly circumscribed to include Dipentodon, Gerrardina, Huertea, Perrottetia, and Tapiscia. Taxon 58(2):468-478.
  4. ^ Christenhusz, M. J. M., M. F. Fay, J. J. Clarkson, P. Gasson, J. Morales Can, J. B. Jiménez Barrios, & M. W. Chase. 2010. Petenaeaceae, a new angiosperm family in Huerteales with a distant relationship to Gerrardina (Gerrardinaceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 164: 16–25.