Proteaceae

Proteaceae

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Proteaceae

Protea cynaroides 3.jpg

Inflorescence of Protea cynaroides

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae

(unranked): Angiosperms

(unranked): Eudicots

Order: Proteales

Family: Proteaceae

Juss.[1]

Genera

About 80, see text

The Proteaceae /ˌproʊtiˈeɪsiː/ are a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1,600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Proteales. Well-known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea, Hakea, Dryandra, and Macadamia. Species such as the New South Wales waratah (Telopea speciosissima), king protea (Protea cynaroides), and various species of Banksia, Grevillea, and Leucadendron are popular cut flowers, while the nuts of Macadamia integrifolia are widely grown commercially and consumed. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentrations of diversity.

Contents [hide]

1 Etymology

2 Description

3 Flowers

4 Ecology

5 Distribution

6 Phytochemistry

7 Uses and cultivation

8 Parasites

9 Conservation status

10 Fossils

11 Taxonomy

12 References

13 External links

Etymology[edit]

The name ‘‘‘Proteaceae’’’ by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789 was based on the genus ‘‘Protea’’, which in 1767 Carl Linnaeus derived from the name of the Greek god Proteus, a deity that was able to change between many forms. This is an appropriate image, seeing as the family is known for its astonishing variety and diversity of flowers and leaves.

Description[edit]

Rhopala heterophylla

Many genera of Proteaceae are highly variable, with Banksia in particular providing one of the most striking examples of adaptive radiation in plants.[2] This variability makes it impossible to provide a simple, diagnostic identification key for the family, although individual genera may be easily identified.

Proteaceae are generally trees, rarely of more than 40 m in height, and are usually of medium height or low or perennial shrubs, except for some Stirlingia species that are herbs. They are facultatively deciduous (Embothrium coccineum), rarely acaulescent, the cauline portion of the collar is often thickened (lignotuber). Indumentum of three-celled hairs, sometimes glandular, rarely absent, the apical cell is usually elongated, acute, sometimes equally or unequally bifid.

Leaves rarely aromatic, usually alternate, and in a spiral, rarely opposed, or verticilate; coriaceous, rarely fleshy or spinescent, simple or compound (imparipinate, imparibipinate or rarely palmate or digitate with pinnatisect segments), entire edge to (3-)pinnatisect (giving a fern-like aspect); rarely divided dichotomously, often remotely toothed, crenate or serrated, seated or stalked; the petiole frequently with a swollen base but rarely sheathed (sometimes in Synaphea), without stipules; pinnate sometimes palmate or parallel venation, brochidodromous or reduced to a single prominent vane, vernation normally

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