Ochnaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Malpighiales.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. Flowering Plant Families of the World. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. (2007). . In the APG III system of classification of flowering plants, Ochnaceae is defined broadly, to include about 550 species,Maria do Carmo E. Amaral, and Volker Bittrich. 2014. "Ochnaceae". pages 253-268. In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor). 2014. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume XI. Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany. (print). (eBook). and encompasses what some taxonomists have treated as the separate families Medusagynaceae and Quiinaceae. In a phylogenetic study that was published in 2014, Ochnaceae was recognized in the broad sense,Julio V. Schneider, Pulcherie Bissiengou, Maria do Carmo E. Amaral, Ali Tahir, Michael F. Fay, Marco Thines, Marc S.M. Sosef, Georg Zizka, and Lars W. Chatrou. 2014. "Phylogenetics, ancestral state reconstruction, and a new infrafamilial classification of the pantropical Ochnaceae (Medusagynaceae, Ochnaceae s.str., Quiinaceae) based on five DNA regions". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 78:199-214. . but two works published after APG III have accepted the small families Medusagynaceae and Quiinaceae.Zhenxiang Xi, Brad R. Ruhfel, Hanno Schaefer, André M. Amorim, Manickam Sugumaran, Kenneth J. Wurdack, Peter K. Endress, Merran L. Matthews, Peter F. Stevens, Sarah Mathews, and Charles C. Davis. 2012. "Phylogenomics and a posteriori data partitioning resolve the Cretaceous angiosperm radiation Malpighiales". PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) 109(43):17519-17524. . (See External links below). These have not been accepted by APG IV (2016).
In this article, "Ochnaceae" will refer to the larger circumscription of the family, which is otherwise known as Ochnaceae sensu lato or as the ochnoids. In this sense the family includes 32 genera with about 550 species.
Ochnaceae, defined broadly or narrowly, is pantropical in distribution, with a few species cultivated outside of this range. Ochnaceae is most diverse in the Neotropics, with a second center of diversity in tropical Africa. It consists mostly of shrubs and small trees, and, in Sauvagesia, a few herbaceous species. Many are treelets, with a single, erect trunk, but low in height. The Ochnaceae are notable for their unusual leaves. These are usually shiny, with closely spaced, parallel veins, toothed margins, and conspicuous stipules. Most of the species are buzz pollinated.Paul A. De Luca and Mario Vallejo-Marin. 2013. "What's the buzz about? The ecology and evolutionary significance of buzz pollination". Current Opinion in Plant Biology 16(4):429-435. . In eight of the genera in tribe Sauvagesieae, the flower changes form after opening, by continued growth of tissue within the flower.
A few species of Ochna are cultivated as ornamentals.Anthony Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (1992). The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. The Macmillan Press, Limited: London. The Stockton Press: New York. (set). Ochna thomasiana is probably the most commonly planted, but it is often misidentified in the horticultural literature.Warren L. Wagner, Derral R. Herbst, and Sy H. Sohmer. Manual of the Flowering Plants of Hawaii, Revised Edition, 1999. Bishop Museum Press: Hololulu
The leaves of Cespedesia are sometimes to in length and are used for roofing.David J. Mabberley. 2008. Mabberley's Plant-Book third edition (2008). Cambridge University Press: UK. (See External links below). An herbal tea is made from the pantropical weed Sauvagesia erecta.
In its evolution, Ochnaceae has been unusual, in "reverting" to character states that are regarded as ancestral or primitive. For example, an actinomorphic floral symmetry has appeared twice in the subfamily Ochnoideae. Also, two clades of Ochnaceae, one in Ochnoideae and another in Quiinoideae have a derived condition very close to apocarpy. The complete separation of the carpels (apocarpy) is thought to be the ancestral state for angiosperms.Peter K. Endress. 2011. "Evolutionary diversification of the flowers in angiosperms". American Journal of Botany 98(3):370-396. . (See External links below).
Fossils attributed to Ochnaceae are known from the early Eocene of Mississippi.Daniel Danehy, Peter Wilf, and Stefan A. Little. 2007. "Early Eocene macroflora from the red hot truck stop locality (Meridian, Mississippi, USA)". Palaeontologia Electronica 10(3):17A:31pages. (See External links below). The age of the family is very roughly estimated at 100 million years.Susana Magallon, Khidir W. Hilu, and Dietmar Quandt. 2013. "Land plant evolutionary timeline: Gene effects are secondary to fossil constraints in relaxed clock estimation of age and substitution rates". American Journal of Botany 100(3):556-573. . (See External links below).
A great many genus names have been published in Ochnaceae.The Plant List: Ochnaceae. (See External links below). In a taxonomic revision of Ochnaceae, as three families, in 2014, only 32 of these genera were accepted; one in Medusagynaceae, four in Quiinaceae, and 27 in Ochnaceae s.s. In that same year, a 33rd genus, Neckia, was reestablished in order to preserve the monophyly of another genus, Sauvagesia.
The largest genera in Ochnaceae are: Ouratea (200 species), Ochna (85), Campylospermum (65), Sauvagesia (39), and Quiina (34). None of the larger genera has been the subject of a phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences of selected genes. In one study of the subfamily Quiinoideae, based on the trn L-F intergenic spacer, only nine species were sampled from this subfamily.Julio V. Schneider, Ulf Swenson, Rosabelle Samuel, Tod Stuessy, and Georg Zizka. 2006. "Phylogenetics of Quiinaceae (Malpighiales): evidence from trnL-trnF sequence data and morphology". Plant Systematics and Evolution 257(3-4):189-203. .
Genera
The following list of 36 genera consists of Neckia, which was resurrected in 2014, Indovethia,Schneider, J.V., Jungcurt, T., Cardoso, D., Amorim, A.M., Töpel, M., Andermann, T., Poncy, O., Berberich, T. and Zizka, G. (2021), Phylogenomics of the tropical plant family Ochnaceae using targeted enrichment of nuclear genes and 250+ taxa. Taxon, 70: 48-71. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12421 Polythecanthum and Sinia,Ochnaceae DC. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 22 January 2024. plus the 32 genera that were described in the most recent revision of Ochnaceae.Klaus Kubitzki. 2014. "Quiinaceae". pages 277-281. . In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor). 2014. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume XI. Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany. (print). (eBook). William C. Dickison and Klaus Kubitzki. 2014. "Medusagynaceae". pages 249-251. . In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor). 2014. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume XI. Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany. (print). (eBook). The classification is from Schneider et alii (2014). Medusagynoideae Medusagyne Quiinoideae clade Froesia clade Lacunaria Quiina Touroulia Ochnoideae Testuleeae Testulea Luxemburgieae Luxemburgia Philacra Ochneae Lophirinae Lophira Elvasiinae Elvasia Perissocarpa Ochninae Brackenridgea Campylospermum Idertia Ochna Ouratea Polythecanthum Rhabdophyllum Sauvagesieae Adenarake Blastemanthus Cespedesia Euthemis Fleurydora Godoya Indosinia Indovethia Krukoviella Neckia Poecilandra Rhytidanthera Sauvagesia Schuurmansia Schuurmansiella Sinia Tyleria Wallacea
Description The following description is excerpted from the descriptions of Medusagynaceae, Quiinaceae, and Ochnaceae s.s. in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, with some information from other sources, as indicated.
Mostly shrubs and small trees, plus a few trees of moderate size, and in Sauvagesia, a few herbs.
Leaves simple, except pinnately compound in Krukoviella, and in Quiinoideae, often pinnately lobed or compound on juvenile plants. Pinnate leaves are typical of Rhytidanthera. The leaves are often coriaceous and conspicuously serrate. Stipules present, except Medusagyne.
Venation often scalariform (ladder-like) in appearance, with parallel and closely spaced secondary and tertiary veins. Petioles absent or short, sometimes resembling a pulvinus.
Unisexual flowers are common in Medusagyne and in Quiinoideae (except Froesia), but restricted to a clade of three genera in Ochnoideae. Unisexual flowers are found in Schuurmansia, Schuurmansiella, and Euthemis. The flowers are always unisexual in Schuurmansiella.
In polygamous species, flowers have been assessed as bisexual on the basis of morphology only. Pollen produced by apparently hermaphroditic flowers has, in a few cases, been found to be inaperturate, rendering the flower functionally female.
Sepals 3 to 5, often unequal, sometimes accrescent.
Petals 4 or 5, or rarely 3, 6, 7, or 8, often contort, free or fuzed at base only, sometimes reflexed over the sepals.
Fertile stamens 5 to 10 or numerous, rarely one. Filaments sometimes persistent, sometimes narrowed near the anthers.
Anthers basifixed or slightly dorsifixed, usually dehiscing by one or two apical or subapical pores, sometimes latrorsely by longitudinal slits. In Medusagyne and Quiinoideae, an enlarged septum separates the thecae.
Staminodes often present, free or connate, sometimes petaloid, sometimes enveloping the fertile stamens.
Nectar not produced. Flowers usually buzz-pollinated.
Ovary superior, longitudinally ribbed in Medusagyne and Quiinoideae; unribbed in Ochnoideae. Carpels completely fused or nearly separate; 2-15, or up to 25 in Medusagyne. Style apical or gynobasic.
Fruit sometimes winged; rarely a nut or drupe, often berry-like; usually a septicidal capsule, or else the ovary separating to form blackish drupelets on a usually reddish, accrescent receptacle.
Seeds albuminous or exalbuminous, winged or not. The seed coat often includes a layer of cristarque cells. These are sclereids, each containing calcium oxalate crystals in the form of a druse.
Classification Until near the end of the 20th century, Ochnaceae was regarded as a rather odd family, difficult to place with a high degree of certainty. Even into the 21st century, some authors treated the genus Strasburgeria as the closest relative of Ochnaceae, and some even placed it within the family.Armen L. Takhtajan (Takhtadzhian). Flowering Plants second edition (2009). Springer Science+Business Media. . . (See External links below). In the APG III system, Strasburgeria is grouped with Ixerba to form the family Strasburgeriaceae in the rosid order Crossosomatales.Peter F. Stevens (2001 onwards). "Ochnaceae" At: Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. At: Missouri Botanical Garden Website. (see External links below)
More rarely, the genus Diegodendron was thought to be close to Strasburgeria and Ochnaceae. Molecular phylogenetic studies have strongly supported the inclusion of Diegodendron in the rosid order Malvales, and it is sometimes treated as a monospecific family therein.Clemens Bayer. 2003. Diegodendron. pages 175-177. In: Klaus Kubitzki (editor). 2003. The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume V. (volume editors: K. Kubitzki and C. Bayer). Springer-Verlag: Berlin, Heidelberg, Germany. (print) (eBook). . Otherwise, it has been placed in Bixaceae, though there is reason to suspect that it might be closer to Sphaerosepalaceae.
All of the genera mentioned above, as well as Ochnaceae, were long regarded as anamalous taxa of uncertain affinity. All had been placed, at one time or another, with Ochnaceae, near Theaceae, a family now included in the basal asterid order Ericales.