Iteaceae

Iteaceae
Temporal range: Turonian - Recent 90–0 Ma
Itea virginica flowers
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Core eudicots
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Iteaceae
J. Agardh
Genera
  • Divisestylus
  • Itea
  • Pterostemon

Iteaceae is a flowering plant family of trees and shrubs native to the eastern USA, south eastern Africa, and south and Southeastern Asia. Some older taxonomic systems place the genera in this family in the Grossulariaceae. The APG III system of 2009 includes the former Pterostemonaceae in Iteaceae. The family is known from fossil flowers dating to the Turonian age of the Late Cretaceous that have been found in the Raritan Formation, New Jersey and from leaves dating to the Eocene found in the Klondike Mountain Formation, Washington.[1]

References

  1. ^ *Hermsen, E.J., Gandolfo, M.A., Nixon, K.C. & Crepet, W.L. 2003 "Divisestylus gen. nov. (aff. Iteaceae), a fossil saxifrage from the Late Cretaceous of New Jersey, USA" American Journal of Botany 90:1373-1388