Droseraceae

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Droseraceae

Droseraceae Salisb., Parad. Lond. 2: ad t. 95. 1808 sec. Kubitzki 20031
  • 1. Kubitzki, K. 2003: Droseraceae, 198 – 202. – In: Kubitzki, K. & Bayer, C. (ed.), The families and genera of vascular plants 5. – Berlin, Heidelberg & New York: Springer

Introduction

The family includes perennial or annual carnivorous herbs and sometimes submerged aquatics (Kubitzki 2003) characterised by having perception of tactile and chemical stimuli, leaf blade and tentacle movement, and genetically by a loss of the rpl2 intron (Heubl & al. 2006). The family comprises three genera, two of them are monotypic: Aldrovanda L. is distributed in Eurasia, southeastern Africa and north-eastern Australia and Dionaea Sol. ex J. Ellis, endemic to the southeastern United States. Drosera L. is cosmopolitan and comprises probably more than 100 species (Kubitzki 2003; Rivadavia & al. 2003). The family is well-known to attract, capture, retain, and digest small prey animals (mainly small arthropods) with active snap-traps (Aldrovanda [= waterwheel plant] and Dionaea [= Venus's flytrap]) or with active sticky flypaper traps (Drosera [= sundews]) and to absorb the resulting nutrients (Poppinga 2013).
The relationships of Droseraceae to the other carnivorous families of the Caryophyllales remain unclear; the results of several molecular phylogenetic studies resulted in three main hypotheses: Droseraceae as sister of Nepenthaceae (e.g. Nandi & al. 1998: rbcL; Cuénoud & al. 2002; Brockington & al. 2009: combined nuclear and plastid data; Schäferhoff & al. 2010: petD); Droseraceae as sister of a clade including Drosophyllaceae + [Ancistrocladaceae + Dioncophyllacae] (e.g. Schäferhoff & al. 2010: petD) and Droseraceae as sister of the rest of the carnivorous families (e.g. Meimberg & al. 2000: partial matK; Schäferhoff & al. 2009: complete matK; Renner & Specht 2011: combined nuclear, ribosomal and plastid data).A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K

Bibliography

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B. Cuénoud, P. & al. 2002: Molecular phylogenetics of Caryophyllales based on nuclear 18S rDNA and plastid rbcL, atpB, and matK DNA sequences. – American Journal of Botany 89(1): 132-144. http://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.89.1.132
C. Hernández-Ledesma, P., Berendsohn, W. G., Borsch, T., von Mering, S., Akhani, H., Arias, S., Castañeda-Noa, I., Eggli, U., Eriksson, R., Flores-Olvera, H., Fuentes-Bazan, S., Kadereit, G., Klak, C., Korotkova, N., Nyffeler, R., Ocampo, G. & Ochoterena, H. 2015: A taxonomic backbone for the global synthesis of species diversity in the angiosperm order Caryophyllales. – Willdenowia 45(3): 281-383. http://doi.org/10.3372/wi.45.45301
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E. Kubitzki, K. 2003: Droseraceae, 198 – 202. – In: Kubitzki, K. & Bayer, C. (ed.), The families and genera of vascular plants 5. – Berlin, Heidelberg & New York: Springer
F. Meimberg, H., Dittrich, P., Bringmann, G., Schlauer, Jan & Heubl, G. 2000: Molecular phylogeny of Caryophylladae s.l. based on matK sequences with special emphasis on carnivorous taxa. – Plant Biology 2: 218 – 228. http://doi.org/10.1055/s-2000-9460
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H. Poppinga, S., Hartmeyer, S. R. H., Masselter, T., Hartmeyer, I. & Speck, T. 2013: Trap diversity and evolution in the family Droseraceae. – Plant Signality and Behaviour 8(7), e24685. http://doi.org/10.4161/psb.24685
I. Renner, T. & Specht, C.D. 2011: A sticky situation: assessing adaptations for plant carnivory in the Caryophyllales by means of stochastic character mapping. – International Journal of Plant Sciences 172(7): 889-901. http://doi.org/10.1086/660882
J. Rivadavia, F., Kondo, K., Kato, M. & Hasebe, M. 2003: Phylogeny of the sundews, Drosera (Droseraceae), based on chloroplast rbcL and nuclear 18S ribosomal DNA sequences. – American Journal of Botany 90(1): 123-130
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