bignoniaceae

BIGNONIACEAE

Current Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Tree

for Flowering Plants

Bignoniaceae,LAMIALES

LAMIALES

AcanthaceaeBignoniaceaeByblidaceaeCarlemanniaceaeCyclocheilaceaeLamiaceaeLentibulariaceaeMartyniaceaeMyoporaceaeOrobanchaceaePaulowniaceaePedaliaceaePhrymaceaePlantaginaceaeSchlegeliaceaeScrophulariaceaeStilbaceaeVerbenaceae

BignoniaceaeLamiales version of Asterids with•opposite, compound leaves•seeds with wings of hair

Catalpa - North American Bignoniaceae

BIGNONIACEAE (LAMIALES, EUASTERIDS I)

NUMBERS: 100 Genera, 800 species

GEOGRAPHY: mainly tropical, best developed in tropical America

HABITAT: various; commonest in drier, lower forests

ASTERIDAE CHARACTERS: fused petals, two carpellate gynoecium, stamens equal to

or fewer than petals, adnate to petals, disk present

LAMIALES CHARACTERS: leaves opposite, bilaterally symmetrical flowers with

stamens fewer than corolla lobes, superior ovary, fruit a capsule

CHARACTERS DIAGNOSTIC OF FAMILY:

Habit woody: trees or lianas (there are an awful lot of lianas)

Leaves compound (or rarely simple) and usually opposite; tendrils when present aretransformed leaf tips

Flowers large and colorful (or poorly colored in bat-pollinated Crescentia, Enallagma)

Gynoecium stigmas, sensitive to touch, close together to conceal receptive portion;

ovules many per carpel

Fruit usually an elongate capsule dehiscing to yield seeds with hairs matted into a wing;

anomalous spherical, indehiscent fruits in Crescentia and Enallagma have fleshy

hairs

Tabebuia - common in drier neotropics

Spathodea - ubiquitous ornamental

Lianas area common in the Bignoniaceae.

Cydistus

Anisostichus

anomalous wood in the lianas

Crescentia - the calabash

Kigelia - the sausage tree of Africa