Flacourtiaceae

Flacourtia indica

The Flacourtiaceae is a defunct family of flowering plants whose former members have been scattered to various families, mostly to the Achariaceae and Salicaceae. It was so vaguely defined that hardly anything seemed out of place there and it became a dumping ground for odd and anomalous genera, gradually making the family even more heterogeneous.[1] In 1975, Hermann Sleumer noted that "Flacourtiaceae as a family is a fiction; only the tribes are homogeneous."[2]

In Cronquist's classification, the Flacourtiaceae included 79–89 genera and 800–1000 species.[3] Of these, many, including the type genus Flacourtia, have now been transferred to the Salicaceae in the molecular phylogeny-based classification, known as the APG IV system, established by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group. In the list below, the Salicaceae are circumscribed broadly. Some taxonomists further divide the Salicaceae sensu lato into three families: Salicaceae sensu stricto, Scyphostegiaceae, and Samydaceae,[4] or into three subfamilies.

Genera formerly included in the Flacourtiaceae (current family, and subfamily for Salicaceae, in brackets)
  1. ^ Chase, Mark W.; Sue Zmarzty; M. Dolores Lledó; Kenneth J. Wurdack; Susan M. Swensen; Michael F. Fay (2002). "When in doubt, put it in Flacourtiaceae: a molecular phylogenetic analysis based on plastid rbcL DNA sequences". Kew Bulletin. 57 (1): 141–181. doi:10.2307/4110825. JSTOR 4110825.
  2. ^ Miller, Regis B. (1975). "Systematic anatomy of the xylem and comments on the relationships of Flacourtiaceae". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum. 56 (1): 79. doi:10.5962/p.185846. S2CID 108459529.
  3. ^ Lemke, David (1988). "A synopsis of Flacourtiaceae". Aliso. 12 (1): 29–43. doi:10.5642/aliso.19881201.05. S2CID 87472599. Retrieved 11 July 2018.
  4. ^ Wurdack, Kenneth J.; Charles C. Davis (2009). "Malpighiales phylogenetics: Gaining ground on one of the most recalcitrant clades in the angiosperm tree of life". American Journal of Botany. 96 (8): 1551–1570. doi:10.3732/ajb.0800207. PMID 21628300. S2CID 23284896.
  5. ^ Alford, M. H. (2006). "Gerrardinaceae: a new family of African flowering plants unresolved among Brassicales, Huerteales, Malvales, and Sapindales". Taxon. 55 (4): 959–964. doi:10.2307/25065689. JSTOR 25065689.
  6. ^ Hinsley, Stewart Robert (2005). "Malvaceae Info: The Goethalsia Page". www.malvaceae.info. Retrieved 17 September 2021.