Maleae

For the cape in Greece known anciently as Maleae, see Cape Maleas.

Maleae
Temporal range: Eocene - recent[1]
Lindleya mespiloides in bloom
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Subfamily: Amygdaloideae
Tribe: Maleae
Small 1933
Subtribes
Synonyms
  • Crataegeae Koehne 1890
  • Kageneckieae Takhtajan 1997
  • Lindleyieae Takhtajan 1997
  • Pomeae A. Gray 1842
  • Pyreae Baill.
  • Sorbeae Koehne

The Maleae (incorrectly Pyreae) are the apple tribe in the rose family, Rosaceae. The group includes a number of plants bearing commercially important fruits, such as apples and pears, while others are cultivated as ornamentals. Older taxonomies separated some of this group as tribe Crataegeae,[2][3] as the Cydonia group (a tentative placement),[3] or some genera were placed in family Quillajaceae.[3]

The tribe consists exclusively of shrubs and small trees. Most have pomes, a type of accessory fruit that does not occur in other Rosaceae. All except Vauquelinia (with 15 chromosomes) have a basal haploid chromosome count of 17, instead of 7, 8, or 9 as in the other Rosaceae.[4]

There are approximately 28 genera that contain about 1100 species worldwide, with most species occurring in the temperate Northern Hemisphere.

  1. ^ "Rosales". www.mobot.org. Retrieved 2023-06-16.
  2. ^ G. K. Schulze-Menz 1964. Reihe Rosales. in A. Engler's Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Nutzpflanzen nebst einer Übersicht über die Florenreiche und Florengebiete der Erde, Gebrüder Borntraeger, Berlin
  3. ^ a b c Kalkman, C. (2004). "Rosaceae". In K. Kubitzki (ed.). Flowering plants, dicotyledons : Celastrales, Oxalidales, Rosales, Cornales, Ericales. Vol. 6. Berlin: Springer. pp. 343–386.
  4. ^ Goldblatt, P. (1976). "Cytotaxonomic studies in the tribe Quillajeae (Rosaceae)". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 63 (1): 200–206. doi:10.2307/2395226. JSTOR 2395226.