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In this article we will discuss about the classification of Hamamelidae:- 1. Juglandaceae 2. Moraceae 3. Casuarinaceae.
Family # 1. Juglandaceae:
Salient Features of Juglandaceae:
Trees or shrubs, large alternate, aromatic leaves, opposite in Alfaroa, Oreomunnia. Leaves are pinnately compound or ternate and usually 20-100 cm long. Wind pollinated, Inflorescence catkin.
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There are eight genera in the family including nut producing tree walnut (Juglans), Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) and hickory (Carya). The persian walnut (Juglans regia) is one of the major nut crops of the world. Walnut, hickory and gaulin are also valuable timber trees.
Vegetative Characters of Juglandaceae:
Trees or shrubs, often resinous.
Leaves:
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Alternate or opposite (Alfaroa), deciduous, petiolate or sessile, non sheathing, aromatic, compound impanpinnate, exstipulate, Lamina pinnately veined.
Floral Characters of Juglandaceae:
Inflorescence:
Solitary (female flowers) or catkins, drooping, erect or grouped into terminal panicles, or racemes or spike. The catkins may be unisexual or bisexual with proximal staminate and distal pistillate flowers.
Flower:
Bracteate, bracteolate or ebracteolate, often bracteoles adnate to sepals in male or to the bracts in female. In female they form a cupulate involucre maturing to form a husk around the fruit. Flowers very small and inconspicuous.
Perianth:
Sepaline, vestigial or absent, if present 4 tepals or 4 sepals; more or less adnate with the bracteoles. Four calyx teeth or suppressed in female flowers.
Androecium:
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5-50 or more free from perianth, polyandrous, diplostemonous to polystemonous, filaments short, anthers basifixed, tetrasporangiate and dehisce by longitudinal slits.
Gynoecium:
2-3 Carpelled, syncarpous inferior, ovary 1 locular above to 2-3 locules below (false partition), style one or 2, terminal, stigma 2, Placentation basal, Ovule orthotropous.
Fruit:
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Fleshy or non- fleshy, a drupe or nut or samara.
Seed:
Non-endospermic, embryo large oily, cotyledons 2 often massive, deeply lobed from the false septa, and sculptured.
Tryma:
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Fruit of juglandaceae are borderline and difficult to categorize. Hickory nut (Carya) and Walnut (Juglans) in this family grow within an outer husk, these fruits are technically drupes or drupaceous nuts but not true botanical nuts. They are called Tryma.
Economic Importance of Juglandaceae:
Timber:
Juglans and Carya trees yield timber for furniture.
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Edible:
Edibul nuts of Walnut and Pecan are source of vitamin A and other valuable sources.
Classification:
The known living genera are grouped into subfamilies, tribes and subtribes:
1. Subfamily: Engelhardioideae.
2. Subfamily: Juglandoidea.
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Tribe 1. Platycaryeae
Tribe 2. Juglandeae
Subtribe 1. Caryinae .
Subtribe 2. Juglandinae
Family: Juglandaceae
Family # 2. Moraceae:
Salient Features of Moraceae:
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Moraceae often known as mulberry family or fig family. It is a family of flowering plants comprising of about 40 genera and 1000 species, widespread in tropical and subtropical regions. They are less in temperate climate. Distinguishing characters.
The only synapomorphy within Moraceae is presence of laticifers and milky sap in all parenchymatous tissues, but generally useful field characters include two carpels sometimes reduced to one, compound in conspicuous flowers and compound fruits. The flowers of Moraceae are often Pseudanthia (reduced inflorescence). Important plants of the family are Fig, Banyan, Breadfruit, Jackfruit, Mulberry etc.
Vegetative Characters of Moraceae:
Generally trees or shrubs or lianas including stanglers, or herbs (Dorstemia): Laticiferous with coloured juice (Malaisia, Fatoua), resinous or non-resinous. Perennial plants. Self supporting, epiphytic or climibing. Some species of Ficus are very big and long living trees. Ficus scandns is a creeping shrubs Ficus also possess prop roots.
Leaves:
Simple, Alternate rarely opposite, evergreen, medium sized to large, leathery, petiolate, non-sheathing, epulvinate base, petiolate, stipulate, stipules interpetiolar or intrapetiolar, free or occhreate, minute, caducous or persistent.
In Ficus elastica stipules are very large and unite to form a cap around the young leaves. Lamina entire (Ficus), dentate (Morus). Leaves may be palmately lobed as in Broussonetia. Cystolith are commonly present. Minor leaf veins without phloem transfer cells (Ficus, Maclura).
Floral Characters of Moraceae:
Inflorescence:
Flowers tightly aggregated in inflorescences, or solitary (rare), spike, head, umbel, catkin, Hypanthodium (Ficus). Inflorescence axillary, ramiflory or cauliflory. Hypanthodium is highly specialized inflorescence found is Ficus only. It has female flowers at the base of cavity while male flowers near apical region. Some flowers are bisexual also. Plants are monoecious (Ficus) or dioecious (Morus).
Flower:
Unisexual, actinomorphic incomplete, small, hypogynous.
Perianth:
Sepaline usually or vestigial or absent (rarely), 2-4, free or fused. Arranged in two whorls, the perianth is peristent.
Androecium (in male flowers):
Generally the number of stamens is equal to perianth leaves. Antitepalous, filament is curved is Morus, straight in Ficus Dorstenia etc. Anthers dithecous, extrose or introse, dehiscing by longitudiual slits.
Gynoecium:
Bicarpellary syncarpous, inferior posterior carpel show varying degree of reduction. Fully developed in Artocarpus, Morus, empty chambered single solitary pendulous ovule, curved embryo.
Fruit:
Sorosis (Morus), Syconus (Ficus) etaerio of achenes or drupes (Maclura), berry (Cudrania), felshy or non-fleshy, indehiscent, drupe or achene like, enclosed in fleshy receptacles. Pericarp is absent in mulberry.
Seed:
Endospermic or nonendospermic, endosperm oily or non-oily, one cotyledon due to suppression of other, embryo curved.
Pollination— Entomophily.
Floral formula:
Economic Significance of Moraceae:
Edible: Fruit edible.
1. Artocarpus heterophylla: Jack fruit or kathal.
2. Artocarpus Lakoocha: Berhal or Monkeyjack
3. Artocarpus communis: Bread fruit
4. Artocarpus chaplasha: Chaplash.
5. Morus alba: Mulberry or shahtoot.
6. Ficus carica: Fig or anjeer
7. Ficus hispida: Kathumbar.
8. Ficus palmata: Anjiri
9. Morus serrata: Kimu
10. Ficus glomerata: Goolar.
Medicine:
1. Dorstenia contayerva: Roots antidote for snake bite
2. Ficus benghalensis: Milky juice used externally for gout, rheumatism and lumbago. Infusion of bark for dysentry, diorrhoea, diabetes Roots fibers in Gonorrhoea. Leaves for poultice.
3. Morus alba: Bark purgative and vermifuge.
4. Ficus rumphii: Bark antidote for snakebite.
Other uses:
1. Broussonetia papyrifera: Paper mulberry, fibre used for making paper.
2. Ficus elastica: Indian rubber. Rubber for the latex of bark.
3. Morus australis, M. Indica: Leaves source for feed of silk worm.
4. Morus serrata: Kimu leaves as fodder.
5. Ficus infectoria: Pilkhan— Leaves as fodder.
6. Cudrania javanensis: Wood is a source of yellow dye.
7. Streblus asper: Wood used for making cart wheels.
8. Ficus glomerata: Wood used in sacred fire or havan.
9. Ficus religiosa: Sacred plant (Peepal).
Many species of Ficus are Avenue trees e.g.
Ficus glomerata: Goolar
Ficus religiosa: Peepal
Ficus benghalensis: Bargad
Ficus benjamina: Bombay ficus.
Ficus infectoria: Pilkhan
Ficus elastica: Bor
Ficus palmata: Anjiri
Ficus cunia: Khewnau
Ficus rumphii: Pakar.
Dorstenia:
It is the only herb of Moraceae. The Condensed axis is basically cymose, inflorescence is a flattened fleshy axis structure with an irregularly lobed margin and with flowers inserted in small pits upon the upper surface.
Systematics:
Formerly positioned within the now defunct order Urticales. Recent genetic studies have resulted in its placement within Rosales in a clade called the urticalean rosids that also include Ulmaceae, Celtidaceae, Cannabaceae and Urticaceae. Cecropia which were variously placed in Moraceae the Urticaceae or their own family Cecropicaceae have turned out to belong to the Urticaceae.
Moraceae includes 5 tribes:
1. Artocarpeae
2. Moreae
3. Dorstenieae
4. Ficeae
5. Castilleae
Moreae is the largest tribe with morphologically diverse conditions and wide geographic distribution. These tribes are monophyletic. Based on molecular analysis, the phylogeny of these tribes Moraceae is thought to have diverged results from molecular analysis.
Phylogeny also suggested that contrary to the conventional principle that dioecious evolves from monoecious, dioecy was the primitive state in Moraceae and monoecy evolved within it upto four times.
Classification:
APG System
Kingdom: Plantae
Unranked: Angiosperm
Unranked: Eudicots
Unranked: Rosids
Order: Rosales
According to Cronquist:
Subclass: Hamamelidae
Order: Urticales
Family: Moraceae
Family # 3. Casuarinaceae:
Silent Features of Casuarinaceae:
Casuarinaceae is generally known as iron wood family. It consists of 3 or 4 genera and 70 species. Mainly trees or shrubs. It is native of old world tropics (Indo-Malaysia), Australia and Pacific Islands.
At one time all of the species were placed in the genus Casuarina but these are now split among Allocasuarina, Casuarina, Ceuthostoma and Gymnostoma. In the Wettstein system this familywas the only one placed in the order Verticillatae. In Engler, Cronquist and Kubitzki systems, Casuarinaceae was the only family placed in the order Casuarinales.
Members are characterized by drooping equisetoid (Equisetum like) twigs, evergreen, monoecions or dioecious. Roots with nitrogen fixing nodules that contain the soil actinomycetes Frankia,
Casuarina sp.Is generally called sheoak or she-oak, ironwood, bull-oak or buloke and beefwood. The shire of buloke in Victoria, Australia is named after the species Allocasuarine luehmannii.
Vegetative Characters of Casuarinaceae:
Evergreen woody branched shrubs orders or tree, branches are whorled and striate (ridges and grooves), alternate whorls of scaly leaves. Connate at the base to form a sheath surrounding node.
Leaves:
Much reduced, minute, whorled, membranous, sessile, halophytic or xerophytic, aromatic in Allocasuarina, simple, exstipulate, sometimes leaves lanceolate.
Numbers of furrows are equal to number of leaves. Ridges contain palisade and sunken stomata in furrows are protected with long hairs. Two rings of vascular bundles are present. Outer ring is of leaf traces, which travel through cortex and enter the leaf base. Inner ring of bundles are stellar in nature.
Floral Characters of Casuarinaceae:
Inflorescence:
Flowers aggregated in spike, head, glomerule or catkin. The fruiting inflorescence is cone like. Inflorescence catkin with male in simple and compound spikes, female in spherical or ovoid heads maturing into woody cones.
Flower:
Plants are monoecions or dioecious with unisexual naked flowers. Flower bracteate, bracleolate, incomplete, actimorphic and hypogynouns.
Staminate flower:
Flowers are arranged is catkin like spike which are present under leaf sheaths. Staminate flower is composed of a single stamen supported by or subtended by a pair of bracteoles and two small middle perianth leaves of which rarely only the posterior is present. At first the filaments are short but increase in length before the involution of anthers. Anthers are dithecous opening by vertical slits.
Androecium:
1 stamen, unbranched, but tending to split, adnate, fertile, anther basifixed, dehiscing longitudinally.
Pistillate flower:
Flowers are crowded at the end of short lateral branches. Each female flower stands singly in the axil of a bract with a pair of bracteoles.
Gynoecium:
It is bicarpellary, superior, originally ovary is bilocular but becomes unilocular by the separation of posterior ovule. Two ovules on a single parietal placenta of which one is abortive. Style short and stigma two long.
Fruit:
One seeded small winged enclosed by two woody bracteoles square and a bract. All at maturity open like a cupule. All fruits aggregate to form a cone like multiple fruit.
Floral formula:
Economic Importance of Casuarinaceae:
Cultivated as ornamental tree. Wood is hard and is used variously equisetifolia wood is called Iron wood.
