Combretaceae

{{Short description|Family of flowering plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossil range|Turonian|0|Turonian - recent|ref={{Cite web |title=Myrtales|url=https://mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/orders/myrtalesweb2.htm|access-date=2023-07-20 |website=www.mobot.org}}}}

| image = Combretum constrictum3.jpg

| image_caption = Combretum constrictum inflorescence

| taxon = Combretaceae

| authority = R.Br.{{Cite journal |last=Angiosperm Phylogeny Group |year=2009 |title=An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III |journal=Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=161 |issue=2 |pages=105–121 |doi=10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x |doi-access=free |hdl=10654/18083 |hdl-access=free }}

| type_genus = Combretum

| type_genus_authority = Loefl.

| subdivision_ranks = Genera

| subdivision = see text.

| synonyms = * Bucidaceae Spreng.

• Myrobalanaceae Martinov
• Strephonemataceae Venkat. & Prak.Rao
• Terminaliaceae J.St.-Hil.{{cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/family.pl?280 |title=Family: Combretaceae R. Br., nom. cons. |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |date=2003-01-17 |access-date=2010-11-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100530012119/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/family.pl?280 |archive-date=2010-05-30 }}

}}

The Combretaceae, often called the white mangrove family, are a family of flowering plants in the order Myrtales. The family includes about 530 species of trees, shrubs, and lianas in ca 10 genera.{{cite journal |author1=Christenhusz, M. J. M. |author2=Byng, J. W. |name-list-style=amp | year = 2016 | title = The number of known plants species in the world and its annual increase | journal = Phytotaxa | volume = 261 | pages = 201–217 | url = http://biotaxa.org/Phytotaxa/article/download/phytotaxa.261.3.1/20598 | doi = 10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1 | issue = 3 | doi-access = free }} The family includes the leadwood tree, Combretum imberbe. Three genera, Conocarpus, Laguncularia, and Lumnitzera, grow in mangrove habitats (mangals).{{cite web|url=http://www.mangrovewatch.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=38&Itemid=300170|title=Lumnitzera|publisher=University of Queensland|access-date=30 June 2010}} The Combretaceae are widespread in the subtropics and tropics. Some members of this family produce useful construction timber, such as idigbo from Terminalia ivorensis. The commonly cultivated Quisqualis indica (as well as the entire former genus Quisqualis) is now placed in the genus Combretum. Many plants in the former Quisqualis genus contain the excitotoxin quisqualic acid, a potent AMPA agonist.{{cite journal| last1=Munir |first1= Muhammad |last2=Lu |first2=Lisha |last3=McGonigle |first3=Paul |date=1995 |title=Excitotoxic cell death and delayed rescue in human neurons derived from NT2 cells |journal=Journal of Neuroscience |volume=15 |issue=12 |pages=7847–7860 |doi=10.1523/JNEUROSCI.15-12-07847.1995 |pmid= 8613724 |url=https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/15/12/7847.full.pdf }}