Thanks Mayur ji for this interesting and informative introduction. regards Prashant
On Mon, Feb 7, 2011 at 11:54 AM, Gurcharan Singh <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 >>> propagation species are sparsely distributed and 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. >>> >> >> > > >
