23-426: See text The Thymelaeaceae / ˌ θ ɪ m ɪ l iː ˈ eɪ s iː / are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants composed of 50 genera (listed below) and 898 species. It was established in 1789 by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu . The Thymelaeaceae are mostly trees and shrubs , with a few vines and herbaceous plants . Several conspicuous or unusual traits are characteristic of the family (when Tepuianthus
46-506: A Thymelaeoideae s.l.( sensu lato ), and reduced to tribal rank, as Synandrodaphneae, Aquilarieae, and Daphneae, respectively. No tribes were designated in subfamily Octolepidoideae, but it was provisionally divided into two informal groups, the Octolepis group and the Gonystylus group. Likewise, no subtribes were designated in the tribe Daphneae, but it was informally divided into four groups:
69-471: A hundred taxonomic publications. Such descriptions typically result from either the discovery of organisms with unique combinations of characters that do not fit existing families, or from phylogenetic analyses that reveal the need for reclassification. The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called
92-666: A lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community for extended periods. The continual publication of new data and diverse opinions plays a crucial role in facilitating adjustments and ultimately reaching a consensus over time. The naming of families is codified by various international bodies using the following suffixes: Name changes at the family level are regulated by the codes of nomenclature. For botanical families, some traditional names like Palmae ( Arecaceae ), Cruciferae ( Brassicaceae ), and Leguminosae ( Fabaceae ) are conserved alongside their standardized -aceae forms due to their historical significance and widespread use in
115-509: A significant practical role in biological education and research. They provide an efficient framework for teaching taxonomy, as they group organisms with general similarities while remaining specific enough to be useful for identification purposes. For example, in botany, learning the characteristics of major plant families helps students identify related species across different geographic regions, since families often have worldwide distribution patterns. In many groups of organisms, families serve as
138-496: Is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes a family—or whether a described family should be acknowledged—is established and decided upon by active taxonomists . There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to
161-440: Is excluded). The bark is usually shiny and fibrous, with strips of bark peeling down the side of broken stems. The number of stamens is usually once or twice the number of calyx lobes; when twice, they often occur in two well separated series. Exceptions include Gonystylus , which may have up to 100 stamens, and Pimelea , which has only 1 or 2. Thymelaeaceae are often difficult to identify because of equivocal interpretation of
184-480: Is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy . It is classified between order and genus . A family may be divided into subfamilies , which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae , but that family
207-569: The Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and the Genera Plantarum of George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker this word ordo was used for what now is given the rank of family. Families serve as valuable units for evolutionary, paleontological, and genetic studies due to their relatively greater stability compared to lower taxonomic levels like genera and species. Families play
230-660: The Linostoma group, the Daphne group, the Phaleria group, and the Gnidia group. The 45 genera recognized by Herber are grouped as follows. Three genera in Daphneae were placed incertae sedis (not assigned to any particular group or in a separate group by themselves). The first molecular phylogeny for Thymelaeaceae was published in 2002. It was based on 2 regions of chloroplast DNA . These were
253-468: The rbcL gene and the intergenic spacer between the transfer RNA genes trnL and trnF . Forty one species in the family were sampled. In 2008, Marline Rautenbach performed a phylogenetic study in which 143 species in the family were sampled. The sampling in this study was concentrated in the Gnidia group, but the sampling in the rest of the family was as extensive as in the previous study, or more so. In addition to rbcL and trnL-F data, sequences of
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#1733085930097276-447: The -idae suffix for animal family names, derived from the Greek 'eidos' meaning 'resemblance' or 'like'. The adoption of this naming convention helped establish families as an important taxonomic rank. By the mid-1800s, many of Linnaeus's broad genera were being elevated to family status to accommodate the rapidly growing number of newly discovered species. In nineteenth-century works such as
299-1330: The ITS ( internal transcribed spacer ) region of nrDNA ( nuclear ribosomal DNA ) were used. All of the clades that were strongly supported in the previous study were recovered with even stronger statistical support. The tree below is an excerpt from the Rautenbach (2002) phylogeny. The species of Gnidia were chosen from among the most common or well known species in a way that shows which clades contain species of Gnidia . Octolepis Gonystylus Lethedon Deltaria Solmsia Arnhemia Synandrodaphne Aquilaria Gyrinops Dicranolepis Enkleia Synaptolepis Craterosiphon Edgeworthia Wikstroemia gemmata Wikstroemia canescens Stellera Diarthron Daphne Thymelaea Phaleria Dais Gnidia glauca Gnidia kraussiana Gnidia calocephala Stephanodaphne Dirca Ovidia Peddiea Gnidia humilis Gnidia squarrosa Gnidia pilosa Pimelea Gnidia racemosa Gnidia pinifolia Struthiola Lachnaea Passerina Drapetes Gnidia anomala Family (biology) Family ( Latin : familia , pl. : familiae )
322-583: The flower parts. Sepals, petals, and staminodes are hard to distinguish, and many keys are ambiguous about whether staminodes should be counted as stamens. Moreover, in Wikstroemia , individual plants often produce anomalous flowers. The family is named for the genus Thymelaea , the name of which is a combination of the Greek name for the herb thyme θύμος (thúmos) and that for the olive ἐλαία (elaía) - in reference to its thyme-like foliage (i.e. minuscule leaves) and olive-like fruit. The Thymelaeaceae are in
345-406: The literature. Family names are typically formed from the stem of a type genus within the family. In zoology, when a valid family name is based on a genus that is later found to be a junior synonym , the family name may be maintained for stability if it was established before 1960. In botany, some family names that were found to be junior synonyms have been conserved due to their widespread use in
368-487: The order Malvales . Except for a sister relationship with Tepuianthaceae , little is known for sure about their relationships with the other families in the order . Unlike most recent authors, who recognize four subfamilies , B.E. Herber has divided Thymelaeaceae into two subfamilies. He has retained the subfamily Gonostyloideae, but renamed it Octolepidoideae. The other three traditional subfamilies (Synandrodaphnoideae, Aquilarioideae, and Thymelaeoideae) were combined into
391-907: The primary level for taxonomic identification keys, making them particularly valuable for field guides and systematic work as they often represent readily recognizable groups of related organisms with shared characteristics. In ecological and biodiversity research, families frequently serve as the foundational level for identification in survey work and environmental studies. This is particularly useful because families often share life history traits or occupy similar ecological niches . Some families show strong correlations between their taxonomic grouping and ecological functions, though this relationship varies among different groups of organisms. The stability of family names has practical importance for applied biological work, though this stability faces ongoing challenges from new scientific findings. Modern molecular studies and phylogenetic analyses continue to refine
414-486: The scientific literature. The family-group in zoological nomenclature includes several ranks: superfamily (-oidea), family (-idae), subfamily (-inae), and tribe (-ini). Under the principle of coordination, a name established at any of these ranks can be moved to another rank while retaining its original authorship and date, requiring only a change in suffix to reflect its new rank. New family descriptions are relatively rare in taxonomy, occurring in fewer than one in
437-567: The seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families ( familiae ). The concept of rank at that time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera , which is far from how the term is used today. In his work Philosophia Botanica published in 1751, Carl Linnaeus employed the term familia to categorize significant plant groups such as trees , herbs , ferns , palms , and so on. Notably, he restricted
460-511: The understanding of family relationships, sometimes leading to reclassification. The impact of these changes varies among different groups of organisms – while some families remain well-defined and easily recognizable, others require revision as new evidence emerges about evolutionary relationships. This balance between maintaining nomenclatural stability and incorporating new scientific discoveries remains an active area of taxonomic practice. Octolepis Makokoa Baill. (1886) Octolepis
483-556: The use of this term solely within the book's morphological section, where he delved into discussions regarding the vegetative and generative aspects of plants. Subsequently, in French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo (or ordo naturalis ). The family concept in botany
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#1733085930097506-412: Was further developed by the French botanists Antoine Laurent de Jussieu and Michel Adanson . Jussieu's 1789 Genera Plantarum divided plants into 100 'natural orders,' many of which correspond to modern plant families. However, the term 'family' did not become standardized in botanical usage until after the mid-nineteenth century. In zoology , the family as a rank intermediate between order and genus
529-435: Was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used families (some of them were not named) in some but not in all his orders of "insects" (which then included all arthropods ). The standardization of zoological family names began in the early nineteenth century. A significant development came in 1813 when William Kirby introduced
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