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Moraceae

 
(mə′rās·ē′ē)

(botany) A family of dicotyledonous woody plants in the order Urticales characterized by two styles or style branches, anthers inflexed in the bud, and secretion of a milky juice.


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WordNet: Moraceae
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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: trees or shrubs having a milky juice; in some classifications includes genus Cannabis
  Synonyms: family Moraceae, mulberry family


Wikipedia: Moraceae
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Moraceae
Fossil range: 80 Ma
Cretaceous - Recent

Panama Rubber Tree (Castilla elastica)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Moraceae
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Genera

See text.

Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — is a family of flowering plants comprising about 40 genera and over 1000 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates. The only synapomorphy within Moraceae is presence of lactifers and milky sap in all parenchymatous tissues, but generally useful field characters include two carpels sometimes with one reduced, compound inconspicuous flowers, and compound fruits.[1] Included are well-known plants such as the fig, banyan, breadfruit, mulberry, and Osage-orange. The 'flowers' of Moraceae are often pseudanthia (reduced inflorescences).

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Classification

Formerly positioned within the now defunct order Urticales, recent genetic studies have resulted in its placement within Rosales in a clade called the urticalean rosids that also includes Ulmaceae, Celtidaceae, Cannabaceae and Urticaceae. Cecropia, which were variously placed in the Moraceae, the Urticaceae, or their own family Cecropicaceae, have turned out to belong in the Urticaceae.[2]

Moraceae includes 5 tribes: Artocarpeae, Moreae, Dorstenieae, Ficeae, and Castilleae. With the exception of Moreae, which is large, morphologically diverse, and has a wide geographic distribution, these tribes are monophyletic.[3] Based on molecular analyses of the phylogeny of these tribes, Moraceae is thought to have diverged 73-110 mya.[4] Results from molecular analyses of Moraceae phylogeny have also suggested that contrary to the conventional principle that dioecy evolves from monoecy, dioecy was the primitive state in Moraceae and monoecy evolved within in it up to four times.[5]

Genera

Tribe Artocarpeae
Tribe Castilleae
Tribe Dorstenieae
Tribe Ficeae
Tribe Moreae

Footnotes

References

  • Datwyler, Shannon L. & Weiblen, George D. (2004): On the origin of the fig:Phylogenetic relationships of Moraceae from ndhF sequences. American Journal of Botany 91(5): 767-777. PDF fulltext
  • Judd, Walter S.; Campbell, Christopher S.; Kellogg, Elizabeth A.; Stevens, Peter F. & Donoghue, Michael J. (2008): Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, MA.
  • Sytsma, Kenneth J.; Morawetz, Jeffery; Pires, J. Chris; Nepokroeff, Molly; Conti, Elena; Zjhra, Michelle; Hall, Jocelyn C. & Chase, Mark W. (2002): Urticalean rosids: Circumscription, rosid ancestry, and phylogenetics based on rbcL, trnL-F, and ndhF sequences. American Journal of Botany 89(9): 1531-1536. PDF fulltext
  • Zerega, Nyree J. C.; Clement, Wendy L.; Datwyler, Shannon L. & Weiblen, George D. (2005): Biogroegraphy and divergence times in the mulberry family (Moraceae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37(2): 402-416. doi|10.1016/j.ympev.2005.07.004 PDF fulltext

External Reference


 
 
Learn More
Ficus tsiela
breadfruit (botany)
mulberry (botany)

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Sci-Tech Dictionary. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms. Copyright © 2003, 1994, 1989, 1984, 1978, 1976, 1974 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
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