Amygdaloideae

Amygdaloideae
Cherries Prunus avium
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Subfamily: Amygdaloideae
Arn.
Synonyms
  • Prunoideae Burnett 1835, nom. nud.
  • Prunoideae Horan. 1847

Amygdaloideae (incorrectly called Prunoideae) is a subfamily within the flowering plant family Rosaceae. It was formerly considered by some authors[1] to be separate from Rosaceae, and the family names Prunaceae and Amygdalaceae have been used. Commercially, important members of the Amygdaloideae include plum, cherry, apricot, peach, and almond. The fruit of these plants are known as stone fruit (a drupe), as each fruit contains a hard shell (the endocarp) called a stone or pit, which contains the single seed.

Taxonomy

The taxonomy of this group of plants within the Rosaceae has recently been unclear. In 2001 it was reported[2] that Amygdaloideae consists of two distinct genetic groups or "clades", PrunusMaddenia and ExochordaOemleriaPrinsepia. Further refinement[3] shows that ExochordaOemleriaPrinsepia is somewhat separate from PrunusMaddeniaPygeum, and that the traditional subfamilies Maloideae and Spiraeoideae must be included in Amygdaloideae if a paraphyletic group is to be avoided. With this classification the genus Prunus is considered to include Armeniaca, Cerasus, Amygdalus, Padus, Laurocerasus, Pygeum, and Maddenia. Other, non-cladist taxonomists consider the Amygdaloideae to be a single tribe, or else three separate tribes.

Robert Frost alluded to the merging of Amygdalaceae into Rosaceae in his poem The Rose Family,[4] when he wrote "The rose is a rose and was always a rose / But the theory now goes that the apple's a rose, / and the pear is, and so's the plum, I suppose." In the next line he wrote, "The dear [i.e., "the dear Lord", euphemized] only knows what will next prove a rose." This referred to shifting botanical opinion which had recently[5] reunited Amygdalaceae, Spiraeaceae, and Malaceae into Rosaceae (which matches de Jussieu's 1789 classification).[6]

References

  1. ^ John Lindley (1830). Introduction to the natural system of botany: or, a systematic view of the organization, natural affinities, and geographic distribution of the whole vegetable kingdom; together with the uses of the most important species in medicine, the arts, and rural or domestic economy. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/31944#21. 
  2. ^ Sangtae Lee & Jun Wen (2001). "A phylogenetic analysis of Prunus and the Amygdaloideae (Rosaceae) using ITS sequences of nuclear ribosomal DNA". American Journal of Botany 88 (1): 150–160. JSTOR 2657135. http://www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/88/1/150?ck=nck#T1. 
  3. ^ D. Potter, T. Eriksson, R. C. Evans, S. Oh, J. E. E. Smedmark, D. R. Morgan, M. Kerr, K. R. Robertson, M. Arsenault, T. A. Dickinson & C. S. Campbell (2007). Phylogeny and classification of Rosaceae. "Evolution of Rosaceae" (PDF). Plant Systematics and Evolution 266 (1–2): 5–43. doi:10.1007/s00606-007-0539-9. http://biology.umaine.edu/Amelanchier/Rosaceae_2007.pdf. 
  4. ^ Robert Frost (1928). West-Running Brook. Henry Holt & Co. 
  5. ^ Focke, W.O. (1894). "Rosaceae". In A. Engler; K. Prantl. Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien nebst ihren Gattungen und wichtigeren Arten insbesondere den Nutzpflanzen unter Mitwirkung zahlreicher hervorragender Fachgelehrten. 3(3). W. Engelmann: Leipzig. 
  6. ^ de Jussieu, A.L. (1789). Genera plantarum secundum ordines naturales disposita. Paris: Herrisant. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/7762.