The Lecythidaceae are a pantropical family of trees found in the tropics of Central and South America, southeast Asia, and Africa, including Madagascar. The family is divided into three subfamilies, the Planchonioideae, with six genera, the best known of which is Barringtonia, and 59 species in tropical Asia, Malaysia, northern Australia, the Pacific Islands, and Madagascar; the Foetidioideae, with a single genus, Foetidia, and 17 species in Madagascar, Mauritius, and East Africa; and the Lecythidoideae of the Western Hemisphere.
Two other closely related families, the Napoleonaeaceae and the Scytopetalaceae, were previously considered subfamilies of the Lecythidaceae but they are now treated as closely related families. One South American species, Asteranthos brasiliensis, was at one time placed in the Napoleonaeaceae, but embryological, morphological, and molecular evidence demonstrate that it has a stronger relationship with the Scytopetalaceae.
According to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG), the Brazil nut family belongs to the order Ericales which is basal to the euasterid clade. Within the Ericales, the position of the Lecythidaceae is not resolved. For more information about this family of tropical trees see The Lecythidaceae Pages.
Species of the Brazil nut family in the New World range from Veracruz, Mexico (Eschweilera mexicana) to Paraguay (Cariniana estrellensis); the Caribbean is home only to Grias cauliflora which occurs in Jamaica and Central America from Belize and Guatemala to northwestern Colombia; and several species of Eschweilera grow in Trinidad and Tobago, but these islands harbor a South American, not a Caribbean, flora.
The Brazil nut is the economically most important species of Lecythidaceae. Brazil nuts are gathered only from Bertholletia excelsa, a species of non-flooded forest native to Guyana, Surinam, and Amazonian Colombia, Venezuela , Peru , Bolivia, and Brazil . Another species, the cannon-ball tree is cultivated as a botanical curiosity in tropical gardens because of its showy, aromatic flowers and cannon ball like fruits that arise profusely from the main trunk. There are two other species of Couroupita, C. nicaraguarensis and C. subsessilis that are also called cannon ball trees, but these species are not cultivated. Some species, especially in the genus Cariniana, yield valuable timbers.
Lecythidaceae - the Brazil nut family
by Scott A. Mori, Nathan P. Smith, X. Cornejo and Ghillean T. Prance
"The long-term goal of this website is to provide in a single location all of the information that we and our collaborators have accumulated on the taxonomy and biology of the Brazil nut family. We will include keys to species (not yet available), web pages for the Neotropical species (all names and synonyms are in the database but all fields in the records are not yet populated), and copies of papers that have been written about the systematics, economic botany, habitats, pollination, dispersal biology, anatomy and morphology, and molecular biology of the family. One molecular study by Morton et al. (1997) has already been published and others are in progress and will be added to this site as they are published."
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The Lecythidaceae (/ˌlɛsɪθɪˈdeɪʃiː/ LESS-ith-ih-DAY-shee) comprise a family of about 20 genera and 250–300 species of woody plants native to tropical South America, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia and Australia.
The most important member of the family in world trade is the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), valued for its edible nuts; the paradise nut (Lecythis species) is also eaten.
According to the most recent molecular analysis of Lecythidaceae by Mori et al. (2007),[2] the three subfamilies are:
Two other families are sometimes included in Lecythidaceae; the Scytopetalaceae and Napoleonaeaceae are hypothesized as most closely related to Lecythidaceae.
The APG II system of 2003 includes genera from the family Scytopetalaceae in the Lecythidaceae, including Rhaptopetalum and Brazzeia.
The family Lecythidaceae includes the following genera:
Barringtonia acutangula (Freshwater Mangrove) fruits in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. _leaves_in_Narsapur_forest,_AP_W_IMG_0153.jpg)
Careya arborea in Narsapur, Medak district, India. The Lecythidaceae (/ˌlɛsɪθɪˈdeɪʃiː/ LESS-ith-ih-DAY-shee) comprise a family of about 20 genera and 250–300 species of woody plants native to tropical South America, Africa (including Madagascar), Asia and Australia.
The most important member of the family in world trade is the Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), valued for its edible nuts; the paradise nut (Lecythis species) is also eaten.
