Cunoniaceae
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cunoniaceae | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Eucryphia in flower
|
||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Genera | ||||||||||
|
Acrophyllum |
The Cunoniaceae is a family of 26 genera and about 350 species of woody plants in the Antarctic flora, native to Australia, New Caledonia, New Guinea, New Zealand, southern South America, the Mascarene Islands and southern Africa. Several of the genera have remarkable disjunct ranges, found on more than one continent, e.g. Cunonia in South Africa and New Caledonia, and Caldcluvia and Eucryphia in both Australia and South America. Caldcluvia also extends north of the Equator to the Philippines, and Geissois to Fiji in the Pacific Ocean.
The family includes trees, shrubs and lianas; most are evergreen but a few are deciduous. The leaves are opposite or whorled, rarely alternate, and simple or pinnate, and often with conspicuous stipules. The flowers have four or five (rarely three or up to ten) sepals and petals. The fruit is usually a woody capsule containing several small seeds; the seeds have an oily endosperm.
The families Baueraceae, Davidsoniaceae and Eucryphiaceae, previously regarded as distinct, are now included in the Cunoniaceae.
