Really good introduction, Mayur ji
-- Dr. Gurcharan Singh Retired Associate Professor SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007 Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018. Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089 http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/ On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 10:41 AM, Rashida Atthar <[email protected]>wrote: > Mayur ji , thanks for the very informative and interesting write-up on the > family and the beautiful collage of pictures! > > regards, > Rashida. > > On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 10:20 AM, Mayur Nandikar > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Very special Commelinaceae morning to all.................. >> >> FEW WORDS ABOUT COMMELINACE >> >> Spiderworts, the members of family Commelinaceae, are widely distributed >> throughout the world, however, in spite of their vegetative >> propagationspecies are sparsely distributedand many of them are endemic. The >> three major centers of taxonomic diversity >> of Commelinaceae are: Tropical Africa; Mexico and Northern Central America; >> and the Indian subcontinent. In the family only six genera (*Aneilema, >> Buforrestia, Commelina, Floscopa, Murdannia *and *Pollia*) have >> indigenous species in both the New World and the Old World (Faden, 1978). >> >> Family Commelinaceae comprises about 41 genera and 650 species distributed >> mostly in the tropical and warm temperate regions of the world (Faden, >> 2000). According to Faden (1998a) Peninsular India and the foothills of >> Himalayas to Thailand and Southwestern China is major center of diversity >> for Commelinaceae. It is represented in India with 14 genera and 85 species >> (Karthikeyan and Jain, 1989). >> >> *Systematic Position:* >> >> * >> * >> >> The family Commelinaceae is very natural and mostly very well defined. Its >> characters and relationship with other families belonging to Farinosae have >> been fully discussed by Hamann (1961, 1962 and 1963). Bruckner (1926) >> classified the family in two subfamilies- Tradescantieae with actinomorphic >> and Commelineae with zygomorphic flowers. Tradescantieae is further divided >> into ‘Declinatae’ and ‘Inclinatae’ determined by floral buds being bent away >> and towards the axis respectively. The genera *Murdannia *Royle are >> separated from *Aneilema *R. Br. on the basis of floral symmetry >> (Bruckner, 1926). According to him *Aneilema* in the restricted sense >> belongs to sub family Commelineae, whereas *Murdannia* to Tradescantieae. >> Woodson (1942) also recognized two tribes in Commelinaceae viz. >> Tradescantieae and Commelineae; the former has paired sessile scorpoid cymes >> which appear as two sided units superficially, whereas in the later ultimate >> branches of inflorescence of individual scorpoid cymes appear one sided. >> Supposedly he rejected the idea of sorting out *Murdannia* from *Aneilema >> * and kept them in his tribe Commelineae. >> >> Bentham and Hooker (1883) put the Family Commelinaceae in the >> series ‘Coronariae’ along with the families Roxburghiaceae, Liliaceae, >> Pontenderiaceae, Philydraceae, Xyridaceae, Mayaceae and Rapataceae. Engler >> (1895 and 1897) and Rendle (1904) placed the family in order ‘Farinosae’ >> under sub-order ‘Commelinae’ consisting single family Commelinaceae. Order >> Farinosae of Engler and Prantle (1915) also includes Flagellariaceae, >> Restionaceae, Centrolepidaceae, Mayaceae, Xyridaceae, Eriocaulaceae and >> Philydraceae; and is characterized by copious mealy endosperm. Bessey (1915) >> placed the family in his order ’Liliales’, which include Liliaceae and >> Najadaceae, along with many families of Farinosae of Engler. According to >> Hutchinson (1934) his order Commelinales including Commelinaceae, Mayaceae, >> Flagellariaceae and Cartonemataceae to be a basic terrestrial stock of his >> Calyciflorae, from which has evolved his order Zingiberales. The seeds of >> the members of Commelinales are characterized by having an ‘embryotega’, a >> special development of micropyle (Hutchinson, *loc. cit.*). >> >> The predominant trend, which begun by Meisner (1842), was to >> divide the family into two major groups. His tribe Tradescantieae had 6 >> fertile stamens while tribe Commelineae had a reduced number of fertile >> stamens. Hasskarl (1870) used Meisner’s classification, as did Clarke >> (1881), who also separated out a small, third tribe, Pollieae for genera >> with berries or berrylike fruits. >> >> Bruckner (1926 and 1930) raised the two major divisions of the >> family to subfamily rank and distinguished them on the basis of floral >> symmetry- subfamily ‘Tradescantieae’ (flowers actinomorphic) and subfamily >> ‘Commelineae’ (flowers zygomorphic). Subfamily Tradescanteae was divided >> into tribes Hexandreae (6 fertile stamens) and Triandreae (3 fertile >> stamens). Subfamily Commelineae was split into tribes Declinatae (buds bent >> downward, the posterior stamens less developed and usually sterile) and >> Inclinatae (buds curved inward, the 3 anterior stamens less developed and >> usually sterile). >> >> Woodson (1942) and Rohweder (1956), focusing on the American >> genera, returned to 2 tribes, Commelineae and Tradescantieae, but defined >> them on the basis of inflorescence rather than floral characters. >> >> Pichon (1946) was the first worker to completely break away >> from the tradition of dividing the family into 2 major components. He >> recognized 10 tribes-Tradescantieae, Callisieae, Anthericopsideae, >> Commelineae, Geogenantheae, Cochliostemateae, Pseudoparideae, Zebrineae, >> Cyanoteae and Dichorisandreae, on the basis of morphological characters. He >> further separated the genus *Cartonema* into its own family >> Cartonemataceae, based in part, on anatomical grounds. >> >> Brenan (1966) recognized 15 informal ‘groups’, using a >> combination of morphological characters. He predicted that not all of his >> groups would prove to be of equal taxonomic rank. >> >> The history of the subdivision of the Commelinaceae was >> summarized by Faden and Hunt (1991) (briefly previwed by Faden, 1985), >> accepted 2 subfamilies- subfamily Cartonematoideae (tribes Cartonemeae and >> Triceratelleae) and subfamily Commelinoideae (tribes Tradescantieae with 25 >> genera and 285 species and Commelineae with 13 genera and 348 species). >> Within the tribe Tradescantieae, 7 subtribes were accepted- Palisotinae, >> Dichorisandrinae, Thyrsantheminae, Streptoliriinae, Cyanotinae, >> Coleotrypinae and Tradescantiinae. >> >> >> Hereby I am attaching a image, represents diversity among the family >> Commelinaceae in India. >> >> (Photograph credit: Mayur Nandikar, Pravin Kawale, Vivek Kale, Rajdeo >> Singh) >> >> >> >> -- >> Mr. Mayur D. Nandikar, >> Research Student, >> Department of Botany, >> Shivaji University, >> Kolhapur. >> > >
