Araliaceae

Encyclopedia : A : AR : ARA : Araliaceae

---

Araliaceae is a family of 52 genera of flowering plants, also known as the Aralia family or Ivy family. The family includes trees, shrubs, lianas and perennial herbaceous plants, and usually bear pinnately or palmately compound leaves, and usually have small flowers produced in large panicles.

The family is closely related to Apiaceae and Pittosporaceae, and the boundaries between these families and other members of Apiales are still uncertain. Some recent systems included Araliaceae in an expanded Apiaceae but this has not been widely followed. Hydrocotyle and Trachymene, traditionally included in Apiaceae, are now generally included in Araliaceae.

The generic level classification of Araliaceae has been unstable; in particular, numerous genera have been synonymized under Schefflera. Recent molecular phylogenies have shown that this large pantropical genus is polyphyletic and it is likely that it will be divided once again into several genera in the near future.

Genera

The following lists all the genera in the family Araliaceae:

• Anakasia
• Apiopetalum
• Aralia
• Arthrophyllum
• Astrotricha
• Boninofatsia
• Brassaiopsis
• Cephalaralia
• Cheirodendron
• Cromapanax
• Cuphocarpus
• Cussonia - C. spicata
• Delarbrea
• Dendropanax
• Didymopanax
• Eleutherococcus - Eleuthero (E. senticosus)
• Fatsia
• Gamblea
• Gastonia
• Harmsiopanax
• Hedera - Ivy (H. helix)
• Heteropanax
• Hunaniopanax
• Hydrocotyle

Marsh Pennywort (Hydrocotyle vulgaris) from Thomé Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz 1885

• Kalopanax
• Mackinlaya
• Macropanax
• Megalopanax
• Merrilliopanax
• Meryta
• Motherwellia
• Munroidendron
• Myodocarpus
• Oplopanax - Devil's club (O. horridum)
• Oreopanax
• Osmoxylon
• Panax - Ginseng (P. ginseng), American ginseng (P. quinquefolium)
• Pentapanax
• Polyscias
• Pseudopanax
• Pseudosciadium
• Reynoldsia
• Schefflera
• Sciadodendrom
• Seemannaralia
• Sinopanax
• Stilbocarpa
• Tetrapanax
• Tetraplasandra
• Trachymene
• Trevesia
• Woodburnia

References and external links

• Chandler, G.T. and G. M. Plunkett. 1994. Evolution in Apiales: nuclear and chloroplast markers together in (almost) perfect harmony. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 144: 123-147 ([abstract]).
• Frodin, D. G. and R. Govaerts. 2004. World Checklist and Bibliography of Araliaceae. Kew Publishing.
• Plunkett, G.M., Soltis, D.E. & Soltis, P.S. 1997. Clarification of the relationship between Apiaceae and Araliaceae based on MATK and RBCL sequence data. American Journal of Botany 84: 565-580 (available [online]; pdf file).
• Wen, J., G. M. Plunkett, A. D. Mitchell, and S.J. Wagstaff. 2001. The Evolution of Araliaceae: A Phylogenetic Analysis Based on ITS Sequences of Nuclear Ribosomal DNA. Systematic Botany 26: 144–167 ([abstract]).
• [Araliaceae Resource Center]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.