Ancistrocladaceae

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Ancistrocladaceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants. Such a family has been widely recognized by taxonomists.

The APG II system, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, of 1998), also recognizes this family and assigns it to the order Caryophyllales in the clade core eudicots. The family consists of a single genus, Ancistrocladus, of about a dozen species of lianas, found in the tropics of the Old World.

Recent molecular and biochemical evidence (see the [AP-Website]) suggests that the carnivorous taxa in the order Caryophyllales (the families Droseraceae and Nepenthaceae and the species Drosophyllum lusitanicum and Triphyophyllum peltatum) all belong to the same clade. This family Ancistrocladaceae would belong to this same clade, although the plants in the family are non-carnivorous.

A close relationship between this family and the family Dioncophyllaceae (containing the carnivorous species Triphyophyllum peltatum) is supported by similar pollen and petiole structure. The Cronquist system, 1981, placed the family in the order Violales (together with Dioncophyllaceae). The Takhtajan system placed the family in its own order Ancistrocladales.

External links :

* [Ancistrocladaceae] in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). [The families of flowering plants]: descriptions, illustrations, identification, information retrieval. Version: 30st May 2006. http://delta-intkey.com

* [NCBI Taxonomy Browser]

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