Moringaceae Family

Members of Moringaceae, or the horseradish tree family, are woody, often quite stout-stemmed shrubs or trees containing one genus, Moringa, with 12 species growing in Madagascar, northeast and southwest Africa, and Arabia, with three species spreading to India. Foliage of Moringaceae often smells unpleasant when crushed. The family is recognizable by its spirally arranged, deciduous, up to three times compound leaves that have conspicu ousswellings or pulvini where the parts join. The flowers look like pea flowers, but they are constructed in a different way, as there are only five stamens, which are held to one side of the flower. The fruit is long and explosively dehiscent, consisting of three parts and containing often winged seeds.

Moringaceae grow in drier parts of the world, and some are bottle trees, or have a large underground portion that withstands periods of drought. Pollination is by bees or birds, and several species have wind-dispersed seeds. Moringa oleifera has a number of uses: it yields a nutritious oil, edible fruits, and ingredients for various traditional medicines, and it has been processed to create biofuel.

Moringaceae grow in drier parts of the world, and some are bottle trees, or have a large underground portion that withstands periods of drought. Pollination is by bees or birds, and several species have wind-dispersed seeds. Moringa oleifera has a number of uses: it yields a nutritious oil, edible fruits, and ingredients for various traditional medicines, and it has been processed to create biofuel.

Bataceae, Salvadoraceae, And Koeberliniaceae

Bataceae, Salvadoraceae, and Koeberliniaceae have in common ultrastructural features, the same base chromosome number, and flowers that lack a nectary and have only two carpels. They, and many other Brassicales, have a curved embryo.

Bataceae and Salvadoraceae are close anatomically and have opposite leaves with secondary veins ascending from or near the base. The pollen is smooth; there are two basal ovules in each compartment of the ovary; and there is no style in Bataceae. Bataceae are fleshy shrublets, with a single genus, Batis, and two species, one from Australia and south New Guinea and the other in the Neotropics (to Florida), including the Galapagos Islands. The plant is shrubby, and the leaves are fleshy and have tiny stipules. The flowers are either male or female and are aggregatedinto dense inflorescences. The female flowers lack bracts, sepals, and petals and are fused together to form a compound fruit; this may be either a capsule or a drupe. This is a curious little family, both members of which are plants of salt marshes. The flowers in the two species are, however, rather differently constructed.

Salvadoraceae includes 3 genera and 11 species of shrubs that grow in drier and sometimes saline places in the area from Africa (including Madagascar) to Southeast Asia and western Malesia. The flowers have the same number of sepals, petals, and stamens, and there are sometimes nectar glands alternating with the stamens. The fruit is fleshy, containing either seeds or a stone. Twigs of Salvadora persica, a species that grows from Africa to India, make a bristly chewing stick, and the plant has valuable antiseptic properties that make it useful in toothpastes. The foliage can be eaten by domesticated animals, and the fruit is edible (some scholars think that it might be the “mustard seed” described in the Bible).

Koeberliniaceae includes just one species, Koeberlinia spinosa, a woody, thorny plant that grows in the drier areas of central and southwestern North America and in Bolivia in South America. It is vegetatively very like other nondescript thorny desert shrubs, and the leaves are very reduced, but its flowers often have fewer than twice as many stamens as petals. The fruit is a berry.

The Resedaceae Group

Resedaceae, Gyrostemonaceae, Tovariaceae, and Pentadiplandraceae have flowers in which the sepals and petals often do not tightly surround the flower as it develops, and they have embryos that are curved in the seeds. Their interrelationships are poorly understood, with little known about the basic morphology and anatomy of the smaller families.

Resedaceae contains 3 genera and 75 species of annual to perennial herbs and shrubs, which grow mostly in drier and warmer north temperate or subtropical regions. The plants are especially common in the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the Sahara, but they are also scattered in suitable places through much of Africa. Resedaceae can become weedy, although rarely seriously so. Pollination is by short-tongued bees. Seeds are shaken out of the capsules by wind or else fall out.

Reseda (68 species) grows from Europe to Central Asia. The flowers are zygomorphic, and the petals are unequal, the largest usually having more or less fringed appendages on their backs. The nectary disc is especially developed on the upper part of the flower (as is quite common in this group of families). The carpels are quite distinctive, since they often do not really close. The fruit is dry, rarely a berry, with the seeds being thrown from or simply falling out of the capsule. Reseda luteola yields a yellow dye that was much used in antiquity, and R. odoratayields an oil used in making scent.

Gyrostemonaceae is a small family of trees and shrubs, with 5 genera and at least 18 species, all native to Australia. Gyrostemon has 12 species. The flowers are of different sexes and are usually small. The stamens, which have at most short stalks, are borne in one or more whorls around the central axis of the flower, as are the carpels. The fruit is very variable, and the seeds have fleshy appendages or arils. Gyrostemonaceae species are wind-pollinated. Once the seeds have fallen to the ground, they may be dispersed by ants.

Tovariaceae contains one genus, Tovaria, and two species of annual herbs that grow in the Neotropics. The species have trifoliate leaves with stipules, terminal, racemose inflorescences, and flowers with parts in sixes to nines that have a short style and spreading stigma. The fruit is a berry.