Cephalotaxaceae is a small family of conifers. It is often treated as a monophyletic family including only the single genus Cephalotaxus,[1] while others have also included Torreya and Amentotaxus in the family.[2][3] Cephalotaxaceae is closely allied to the yew family Taxaceae, and is often included in a wide interpretation of Taxaceae, based on phylogenetic evidence and close morphological similarities between them.[4][5][6][7][8] Included species were restricted to east Asia, except for two species of Torreya found in the southwest and southeast of the United States; fossil evidence shows a much wider prehistorical Northern Hemisphere distribution. The most notable differences between Taxaceae and Cephalotaxaceae concerned the cone aril, which fully encloses the seeds of Cephalotaxaceae, the longer maturation of Cephalotaxaceae seeds and the larger size of the mature seeds.
| Cephalotaxaceae | |
|---|---|
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| Specimen of Cephalotaxus harringtonii | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Gymnospermae |
| Division: | Pinophyta |
| Class: | Pinopsida |
| Order: | Pinales |
| Family: | Cephalotaxaceae Neger |
| Genera | |
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When considered as a distinct family, members of Cephalotaxaceae are much branched, small trees and shrubs. The leaves are evergreen, spirally arranged, often twisted at the base to appear biranked. They are linear to lanceolate, and have pale green or white stomatal bands on the undersides. The plants are monoecious, subdioecious, or dioecious. The male cones are 4–25 mm long, and shed pollen in the early spring. The female cones are reduced, with one to a few ovuliferous scales, and one seed on each ovuliferous scale. As the seed matures, the ovuliferous scale develops into a fleshy aril fully enclosing the seed. The mature aril is thin, green, purple or red, soft and resinous. Each ovuliferous scale remains discrete, so the cone develops into a short stem with one to a few berry-like seeds. They are probably eaten by birds or other animals which then disperse the hard seed undamaged in their droppings, but seed dispersal mechanisms in the family are not yet well researched.
References
edit- ^ Yang, Yong; Yang, Zhi; Ferguson, David Kay; Shong, Jia‐Yi (2023). "An integrative view on the systematic position of the cupressophyte Cephalotaxus". Ecology and Evolution. 13 (7). doi:10.1002/ece3.10273. ISSN 2045-7758. PMC 10323223. PMID 37424937.
- ^ Rushforth, Keith (1987-01-01). Conifers. London: Christopher Helm Publishers. pp. 88 (Amentotaxus), 96 (Cephalotaxus), 211 (Torreya). ISBN 0-7470-2801-X.
- ^ Ghimire, Balkrishna; Heo, Kweon (2014). "Cladistic analysis of Taxaceae s. l.". Plant Systematics and Evolution. 300 (2): 217–223. doi:10.1007/s00606-013-0874-y. ISSN 0378-2697.
- ^ Doyle, J. A. (1998). "Phylogeny of vascular plants". Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics. 29 (1). Annual Reviews: 567–599. doi:10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.29.1.567. ISSN 0066-4162.
- ^ Stützel, T.; Röwekamp, I. (1999). "Female reproductive structures in Taxales". Flora. 194 (2). Elsevier BV: 145–157. doi:10.1016/s0367-2530(17)30893-9. ISSN 0367-2530.
- ^ Quinn, C. J.; Price, R. A.; Gadek, P. A. (2002). "Familial Concepts and Relationships in the Conifer Based on rbcL and matK Sequence Comparisons". Kew Bulletin. 57 (3): 513. doi:10.2307/4110984. ISSN 0075-5974.
- ^ Rai, H. S.; Reeves, P. A.; Peakall, R.; Olmstead, R. G.; G., S. W. (2008). "Inference of higher-order conifer relationships from a multi-locus plastid data set". Botany. 86 (7). Canadian Science Publishing: 658–669. doi:10.1139/b08-062. ISSN 1916-2790.
- ^ Christenhusz, M. J. M.; Reveal, J. L.; Farjon, A.; Gardner, M. F.; Mill, R. R.; Chase, M. W. (2011). "A new classification and linear sequence of extant gymnosperms". Phytotaxa. 19 (1). Magnolia Press: 55. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.19.1.3. ISSN 1179-3163.