Monimiaceae

Monimiaceae
Temporal range: Santonian - recent[1]
male flowers of Tambourissa elliptica
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Magnoliids
Order: Laurales
Family: Monimiaceae
Juss.
Genera[2]

The Monimiaceae is a family of flowering plants in the magnoliid order Laurales.[3] It is closely related to the families Hernandiaceae and Lauraceae.[4] It consists of shrubs, small trees, and a few lianas of the tropics and subtropics, mostly in the southern hemisphere.[5] The largest center of diversity is New Guinea, with about 75 species. Lesser centres of diversity are Madagascar, Australia, and the neotropics. Africa has one species, Xymalos monospora, as does Southern Chile (Peumus boldus). Several species are distributed through Malesia and the southwest Pacific.[6]

The Monimiaceae are underrepresented in herbaria and other plant collections.[6] Variation within the family has not been understood, resulting in an unusual proportion of monospecific genera. As of 2010, these 11 genera were considered monospecific: Peumus, Xymalos, Kibaropsis, Austromatthaea, Hemmantia, Pendressia, Hennecartia, Macrotorus, Macropeplus, Grazielanthus, and Faika. Kairoa was thought to be monospecific until 2009.[7]

The Monimiaceae include 24 genera with a total of about 217 known species.[8] The largest genera and the number of their constituent species is: Tambourissa (50), Mollinedia (20-90), Kibara (43), Steganthera (17), Palmeria (14), and Hedycarya (11). The type genus, Monimia, is endemic to the Mascarenes.

The number of species in the Monimiaceae has been variously estimated from about 200[6] to about 270.[9] Most of this difference results from uncertainty over species limits in the tropical American genus Mollinedia. Estimates of the number of species in Mollinedia have ranged from 20[5] to 90.[9] Janet Russell Perkins and Ernest Friedrich Gilg described 71 species of Mollinedia in Das Pflanzenreich in 1901,[10] but many authors today regard this as an example of overdescription.

The wood of Peumus boldus and Hedycarya arborescens is used locally, in Chile and New Zealand, respectively, but is of no commercial importance. Both of these species are grown in their native regions as ornamentals.[5] An herbal tea is made from Peumus.[5]

The phytochemistry of a few of the genera has been studied.[11]

Fossil wood attributed to the Monimiaceae has been found in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa and on James Ross Island, Antarctica. Both of these fossil sites are roughly 83 million years old, from the Campanian stage of the Cretaceous period. Fossil leaves of the Monimiaceae are known from the Paleocene of King George Island of the South Shetland Islands, near the Antarctic Peninsula[6] and from the Eocene of Patagonia.[12]

Divergence of different groups within Monimiaceae was long believed to be explained by the separation of East Gondwana (India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, the Seychelles, Australia, Antarctica, and New Caledonia) from West Gondwana (Africa and South America), and by the later separation of Africa and South America.[13] The family Monimiaceae was long considered to be one of the best examples of vicariance, but the dating of clades by molecular clock methods has shown that the presence of the Monimiaceae in Africa and South America can be explained only by long-distance dispersal.[6] Antarctica had coastal forests as recently as the mid-Miocene, and these could have provided an intermediate phase in dispersal between Australia and South America.[14]

  1. ^ "Laurales". www.mobot.org. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  2. ^ Monimiaceae Juss. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 17 February 2024.
  3. ^ Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). "Monimiaceae" At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Botanical Databases At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see External links below)
  4. ^ Susanne S. Renner and Andre S. Chanderbali. 2000. "What is the relationship among Hernandiaceae, Lauraceae and Monimiaceae, and why is this question so difficult to answer?" International Journal of Plant Sciences 161(6 supplement):S109-119.
  5. ^ a b c d Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. Flowering Plant Families of the World. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. (2007). ISBN 978-1-55407-206-4.
  6. ^ a b c d e Susanne S. Renner, Joeri S. Strijk, Dominique Strasberg, and Christophe Thébaud. 2010. "Biogeography of the Monimiaceae (Laurales): a role for East Gondwana and long-distance dispersal, but not West Gondwana". Journal of Biogeography 37(7):1227-1238. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2010.02319.x
  7. ^ Susanne S. Renner and Wayne N. Takeuchi. 2009. "A phylogeny and revised circumscription for Kairoa (Monimiaceae), with the description of a new species from Papua New Guinea". Harvard Papers in Botany 14(1):71-81. doi:10.3100/025.014.0111
  8. ^ Christenhusz, M. J. M. & Byng, J. W. (2016). "The number of known plants species in the world and its annual increase". Phytotaxa. 261 (3): 201–217. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1.
  9. ^ a b William R. Philipson. 1993. "Monimiaceae". pages 426-437. In: Klaus Kubitski (editor); Jens G. Rohwer and Volker Bittrich (volume editors). The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume II. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelberg, Germany.
  10. ^ Janet Russell Perkins and Ernest Friedrich Gilg. 1901. "Monimiaceae". pages 1-122. In: Das Pflanzenreich: Regni vegetabilis conspectus. volume IV, family 101. Wilhelm Engelmann. Reprinted by H.R. Engelmann in 1959. (See External links below).
  11. ^ Gilda G. Leitão, Naomi K. Simas, Simone S.V. Soares, Ana Paula P. de Brito, Boris M.G. Claros, Thelma B.M. Brito, Franco Delle Monache. 1999. "Chemistry and pharmacology of Monimiaceae: a special focus on Siparuna and Mollinedia". Journal of Ethnopharmacology 65(2):87-102. doi:10.1016/S0378-8741(98)00233-5.
  12. ^ Cassandra L. Knight and Peter Wilf. 2013. "Rare leaf fossils of Monimiaceae and Atherospermataceae (Laurales) from Eocene Patagonian rainforests and their biogeographic significance". Palaeontologia Electronica 16(3):paper 26A. 39 pages. (See External links below).
  13. ^ David H. Lorence. 1985. "A monograph of the Monimiaceae (Laurales) in the Malagasy Region (Southwest Indian Ocean)". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 72(1):1-165.
  14. ^ Thomas N. Taylor, Edith L. Taylor, and Michael Krings. 2008. Paleobotany: The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants, 2nd edition. Academic Press (an imprint of Elsevier): Burlington, MA; New York, NY; San Diego, CA, USA,, London, UK. 1252 pages. ISBN 978-0-12-373972-8.