Classification System: APG IV
Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Cladus: Angiosperms
Cladus: Eudicots
Cladus: Core eudicots
Ordo: Caryophyllales
Familia: Didiereaceae
Genera: Alluaudia – Alluaudiopsis – Calyptrotheca – Decarya – Didierea – Portulacaria
Name
Didiereaceae Radlk. Nat. Pflanzenfam. 3(5): 462. (1896) nom. cons.
Type genus: Didierea Baill. Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Paris 258. (1880)
Synonyms
Portulacariaceae Doweld, Prosyllabus Tracheoph.: xlii. (2001)
References
Primary references
Radlkofer, L.A.T. 1896. Die Natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien 3(5): 462.
Doweld, A.B. 2001. Prosyllabus Tracheophytorum. Tentamen systematis plantarum vascularium (Tracheophyta) [Prosyllabus Tracheophytorum. Опыт системы сосудистых растений]. LXXX + 110 pp. Moscow: Geos. ISBN 5-89118-283-1. DJVU Reference page.
Additional references
Bruyns, P.V., Oliveira-Neto, M., Melo-de-Pinna, G.F. & Klak, C. 2014. Phylogenetic relationships in the Didiereaceae with special reference to subfamily Portulacarioideae. Taxon 63(5): 1053–1064. DOI: 10.12705/635.36 Paywall JSTOR Hybrid open access journal ResearchGate Reference page.
Nyffeler, R. & Eggli, U. 2010. Disintegrating Portulacaceae: A new familial classification of the suborder Portulacineae (Caryophyllales) based on molecular and morphological data. Taxon 59(1): 227–240. Abstract. Full text (PDF). Reference page.
Links
Govaerts, R. et al. 2020. Didiereaceae in Kew Science Plants of the World Online. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2020 Mar. 7. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2020. Didiereaceae. Published online. Accessed: Mar. 7 2020.
Stevens, P.F. 2001 onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017 [and more or less continuously updated since]. Online. Reference page.
Tropicos.org 2015. Didiereaceae. Missouri Botanical Garden. Published online. Accessed: 3 Jan. 2015.
Vernacular names
català: Didiereàcies
čeština: Didiereovité
فارسی: خارپولکیان
suomi: Kaktiokasvit
français: Didieréacées
hrvatski: Didijerovke
italiano: Didiereacee
한국어: 용수과
lietuvių: Šiurpūniniai
русский: Дидиереевые
українська: Дідієрієві
Tiếng Việt: Họ Xương rồng Madagascar
中文（简体）: 龙树科
中文（繁體）: 龍樹科
Didiereaceae is a family of flowering plants found in continental Africa and Madagascar. It contains 20 species classified in three subfamilies and six genera. Species of the family are succulent plants, growing in sub-arid to arid habitats. Several are known as ornamental plants in specialist succulent collections. The subfamily Didiereoideae is endemic to the southwest of Madagascar, where the species are characteristic elements of the spiny thickets.
Systematics
The family was long considered entirely endemic to Madagascar until the genera Calyptrotheca, Ceraria, and Portulacaria from the African mainland were included.[2] Molecular phylogenetic analysis confirmed the monophyly of the family and its three subfamilies:[3]
| Didiereaceae |
|
The family is closely related to the New World family Cactaceae (cacti), sufficiently closely so that species of Didiereaceae can be grafted successfully on some cacti.[3]
Calyptrothecoideae
Contains only one genus, Calyptrotheca, with two species found in tropical East Africa.[3]
Didiereoideae
This subfamily is endemic to Madagascar, where it is found in the spiny thickets of the dry southwest. The plants are spiny succulent shrubs and trees from 2–20 m tall, with thick water-storing stems and leaves that are deciduous in the long dry season. All of the species except Alluaudiopsis have a distinct youth form. They start as small procumbent shrubs but eventually a dominant stem is produced that becomes a trunk. The trunk later branches forming a crown and the basal branches die off.[4] All species are dioecious (Decarya female-dioecious). The plants have different long-shoots and short-shoots (brachyblasts). Long-shoot leaves are soon deciduous, but brachyblasts form in the leaf axils and from them grow small leaves that appear singly or in pairs and are accompanied by conical spines (much like the areoles found in cacti). The flowers are unisexual (except from Decarya) and radially symmetric, made up of four tepals with two basal bracts. Flowers rarely occur singly. They usually develop in branched clusters that emerge instead of leaves from the brachyblasts.[4]
There are four genera with eleven species:
Alluaudia (Drake) Drake 1903
Alluaudia ascendens (Drake) Drake 1903
Alluaudia comosa (Drake) Drake 1903
Alluaudia dumosa (Drake) Drake 1903
Alluaudia humbertii Choux 1934
Alluaudia montagnacii Rauh 1961 – probably a natural hybrid of A. ascendens and A. procera
Alluaudia procera (Drake) Drake 1903 – quite easy grown and the most frequent species in cultivation
Alluaudiopsis Humbert & Choux 1934
Alluaudiopsis fiherensis Humbert & Choux 1934
Alluaudiopsis marnieriana Rauh 1961
Decarya Choux 1929
Decarya madagascariensis Choux 1929
Didierea Baillon 1880
Didierea madagascariensis Baillon 1880
Didierea trollii Capuron & Rauh 1961
Key to the genera of Didieroideae:
| 1 | Spines in groups of four or more: | Didierea |
| - | Spines single or in pairs: | → 2 |
| 2 | Shoots striking zigzagged, spines short conical: | Decarya |
| - | Shoots not zigzagged, spines long conical to needle-like: | → 3 |
| 3 | Shrubs strongly branched, leaves lanceolate: | Alluaudiopsis |
| - | Shrubs little branched, leaves either ovate to circular or scale-like and awl-shaped: | Alluaudia |
Portulacarioideae
Contains one genus, Portulacaria, with seven species, distributed in Southern Africa. Species formerly considered in the separate genus Ceraria are now included in Portulacaria.[3]
References
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2013-06-26.
Applequist, Wendy L.; Wallace, Robert S. (2003). "Expanded circumscription of Didiereaceae and its division into three subfamilies" (PDF). Adansonia. 25 (1): 13–16. ISSN 1280-8571. open access
Bruyns, Peter V.; Oliveira-Neto, Mario; Melo-de-Pinna, Gladys Flavia; Klak, Cornelia (2014). "Phylogenetic relationships in the Didiereaceae with special reference to subfamily Portulacarioideae". Taxon. 63 (5): 1053–1064. doi:10.12705/635.36. ISSN 0040-0262.
Rauh, W. 1983. The morphology and systematic position of the Didiereaceae of Madagascar. Bothalia 14(3/4): 839–843.
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