The Calycanthaceae (sweetshrubs or spicebushes) are a small family of flowering plants in the order Laurales. The family contains three genera and only 10 known species [3], restricted to warm temperate and tropical regions:

Calycanthaceae
Temporal range: Turonian - recent[1] Possible Aptian record
Calycanthus floridus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Magnoliids
Order: Laurales
Family: Calycanthaceae
Lindl.[2]
Genera
Calycanthaceae

Calycanthus (three species; western and southeastern North America and one species in eastern Asia)

Chimonanthus (six species; eastern Asia)

Idiospermum (one species; Queensland, Australia)

They are aromatic, deciduous shrubs growing to 2–4 m tall, except for Idiospermum, which is a large evergreen tree. The flowers are white to red, with spirally arranged tepals. DNA-based phylogenies indicate the Northern Hemisphere Calycanthus and Chimonanthus diverged from each other in the mid-Miocene, while the Australian Idiospermum had already diverged by the Upper Cretaceous and likely represents a remnant of a former Gondwanan distribution of Calycanthaceae.

The oldest definitive fossil of the family is Jerseyanthus from the Turonian of New Jersey; the even earlier Araripia from the Aptian of Brazil and Virginianthus from the Albian of Virginia may also represent members of the family, but may also be stem-Calycanthaceae or more basal Laurales.[1] In 2024, Araripia was placed in its own order, Araripiaceae.[4]

In the APG IV system of 2016, Calycanthaceae is placed in the Laurales order in the magnoliids clade.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Laurales". www.mobot.org. Retrieved 2023-07-20.
  2. ^ 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. hdl:10654/18083.
  3. ^ Christenhusz, M. J. M.; Byng, J. W. (2016). "The number of known plants species in the world and its annual increase". Phytotaxa. 261 (3): 201–217. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1.
  4. ^ Pessoa, Edlley M.; Ribeiro, Alexandre C.; Christenhusz, Maarten J.M. (2024). "New evidence on the previously unknown gynoecium of Araripia florifera (Araripiaceae, fam. nov.), a magnoliid angiosperm from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) of the Crato Konservat-Lagerstätte (Araripe Basin), northeastern Brazil". Cretaceous Research. 153: 105715. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105715. ISSN 0195-6671.
  5. ^ Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2016). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 181 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1111/boj.12385. ISSN 0024-4074.
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