Turneraceae Kunth

Carl Sigismund Kunth

Carl Sigismund Kunth , also Karl Sigismund Kunth or anglicized as Charles Sigismund Kunth, was a German botanist...

 ex DC.

A. P. de Candolle

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle also spelled Augustin Pyrame de Candolle was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at an herbarium...

 is a family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 of flowering plant

Flowering plant

The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...

s consisting of 120 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 in 10 genera

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

. The Cronquist system

Cronquist system

The Cronquist system is a taxonomic classification system of flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in his texts An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants and The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants .Cronquist's system places flowering plants into two...

 placed the Turneracids in the order

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

 Violales

Violales

Violales is a botanical name of an order of flowering plants and takes its name from the included family Violaceae. The name has been used in several systems, although some systems used the name Parietales for similar groupings...

, but it is not currently recognized as a valid family by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group

The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, or APG, refers to an informal international group of systematic botanists who came together to try to establish a consensus on the taxonomy of flowering plants that would reflect new knowledge about plant relationships discovered through phylogenetic studies., three...

 in the APG III system

APG III system

The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy...

 of 2009, which includes the taxa in the Turneraceae in the Passifloraceae

Passifloraceae

Passifloraceae is a family of flowering plants, containing about 530 species classified in around 18 genera. They include trees, shrubs, lianas and climbing plants, and are mostly found in tropical regions....

.

The genera typically included in this family are:

• Adenoa
• Erblichia
• Hyalocalyx
• Loewia
• Mathurina
• Piriqueta
• Stapfiella
• Streptopetalum
• Tricliceras (Wormskioldia)
• Turnera
  Turnera
  Turnera is a genus of flowering plants in the passionflower family, Passifloraceae. It contains more than 100 species native to tropical and subtropical America. The name honours English naturalist William Turner . It was previously placed in the family Turneraceae.-Selected species:-Formerly...
  
  

Most species in Turneraceae are tropical or sub-tropical shrubs, with a few trees. Half of the family's species belong to the genus Turnera, including the herb

Herb

Except in botanical usage, an herb is "any plant with leaves, seeds, or flowers used for flavoring, food, medicine, or perfume" or "a part of such a plant as used in cooking"...

 damiana

Damiana

Turnera diffusa, known as damiana, is a shrub native to southwestern Texas in the United States, Central America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean. It belongs to the family Passifloraceae....

 (T. diffusa, T. aphrodisiaca), the yellow alder (T. pumilea), which is not really an alder

Alder

Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants belonging to the birch family . The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, few reaching large size, distributed throughout the North Temperate Zone and in the Americas along the Andes southwards to...

, and the "ramgoat dashalong" (T. ulmifolia). Another type of plant in Turneraceae with a vernacular name is stripeseed, which is actually three different species of the genus Piriqueta - the pitted stripeseed (P. cistoides), the rigid stripeseed (P. racemosa), and the purple stripeseed (P. viscosa).

External links

• Entry on Turneraceae from L. Watson and M. J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The Families of Flowering Plants.