Oxalidaceae

Oxalidaceae
Averrhoa bilimbi
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Oxalidales
Family: Oxalidaceae
R.Br.[1]
Genera

Oxalidaceae, or the wood-sorrels family, is a family of five genera of flowering plants, with the great majority of the 570 species[2] in the genus Oxalis. Members of this family typically have divided leaves, with the leaflets showing "sleep movements", spreading open in light and closing in darkness.

Description

Oxalidaceae can be herbaceous plants, shrubs, and small trees.

Leaves

Oxalidaceae leaves tend to be pinnately veined[3], alternate, and clustered with well-developed petioles. The abaxial (under) side of the leaves can have trichomes. Herbaceous plants in this family tend to have their leaves in the form of a rosette[4].

Some leaves in genera Averrhoa and Biophytum, can be sensitive to both light and touch[4].

Flowers

Flowers in this family are perfect, meaning they have a calyx, corolla, gynoecium, and androecium. Oxalidaceae tend to come in parts of 5, having five sepals, five petals, and five fused carpels. The petals of Oxalidaceae flowers tend to be free, or just slightly fused at the base, appearing in red, yellow, white, purple to violet, but never blue.These plants tend to have a superior ovary, that consists of five, fused carpels[4]. Stamens tend to be fused in Oxalidaceae plants, and in two whorls of five, where the outer whorl lines up with the petals and tends to be shorter, while the inner whorl lines up with the sepals and tends to be longer[3].

Classification

It was initially believed that Dapania, Averrhoa, and Sarcotheca were most closely related due to the woody habit of the plants in those genera, and were placed in their own family called Averrhoaceae. Oxalis and Biophytum were believed to be in the Geranaiceae family[5]. However, through molecular studies, it has been determined that these genera make up the Oxalidaceae family, most closely related to the Connarceae family. These families form a monophyletic group with: Brunelliaceae, Cephalotaceae, Cunoniaceae, and Elaeocarpaceae[3].

Oxalidaceae

References

  1. ^ Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III" (PDF). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x. hdl:10654/18083. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
  2. ^ 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. Bibcode:2016Phytx.261..201C. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1.
  3. ^ a b c Matthews, Merran L.; Endress, Peter K. (December 2002). "Comparative floral structure and systematics in Oxalidales (Oxalidaceae, Connaraceae, Brunelliaceae, Cephalotaceae, Cunoniaceae, Elaeocarpaceae, Tremandraceae)". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 140 (4): 321–381. doi:10.1046/j.1095-8339.2002.00105.x. ISSN 1095-8339.
  4. ^ a b c Cocucci, A. A. (2004), Kubitzki, Klaus (ed.), "Oxalidaceae", Flowering Plants · Dicotyledons: Celastrales, Oxalidales, Rosales, Cornales, Ericales, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 285–290, doi:10.1007/978-3-662-07257-8_32, ISBN 978-3-662-07257-8, retrieved 2026-02-07{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  5. ^ Shaw, J. M. H. (2023), "Oxalidaceae", Dicotyledons: Rosids, Springer, Cham, pp. 963–965, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-93492-7_97#citeas, ISBN 978-3-030-93492-7, retrieved 2026-02-10{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
Carambola or starfruit, considered by some botanists in a separate family, Averrhoaceae


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