Lythraceae

Lythraceae species are most often herbs, and less often shrubs or trees; the shrubs and trees often have flaky bark.{{cite book|author-link=David Mabberley |last=Mabberley |first=David J. |title=Mabberley's Plant Book: A portable dictionary of plants, their classification and uses |edition=3rd |year=2008 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-82071-4 |page=508 }} Traits shared by species within the Lythraceae that distinguish them from belonging to other plant families are the petals being crumpled in the bud and the many-layered outer integument of the seed.{{Cite journal |last1=Mahmoodi |first1=Rana |last2=Faghir |first2=Marzieh Beygom |last3=Parsapanah |first3=Soheyla |date=2022-08-03 |title=Palynological study of the family J.St.-Hil. in Iran; with special emphasis on the genera Ammannia, Lythrum, and Rotala |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/fedr.202100052 |journal=Feddes Repertorium |volume=133 |issue=4 |pages=289–304 |doi=10.1002/fedr.202100052 |issn=0014-8962|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |date=2022-01-07 |title=Lawsonia (Lythraceae) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1079/cabicompendium.47159598 |access-date=2024-06-29 |website=CABI Compendium|doi=10.1079/cabicompendium.47159598 |url-access=subscription }}

The leaves generally have an opposite arrangement, but sometimes are whorled or alternate. They are simple with smooth margins and pinnate venation. Stipules are typically reduced, appearing as a row of minute hairs, or absent.

The flowers are bisexual, radially or occasionally bilaterally symmetric, with a well-developed hypanthium. The flowers are most commonly quadimerous but can be heximerous, with four to eight sepals and petals. The sepals may be distinct, partially fused to form a tube, or touching without overlapping. The petals are crumpled in the bud and wrinkled at maturity, and are typically distinct and overlapping; they are occasionally absent. Usually, twice as many stamens as petals are seen, arranged in two whorls, and the stamens are often unequal in length. Occasionally, the stamens are reduced to one whorl, or are more numerous with multiple whorls. The ovary is typically superior, infrequently semi-inferior,{{cite web |url=http://www.kew.org/science/tropamerica/neotropikey/families/Lythraceae.htm|title=Neotropical Lythraceae |last1=Graham |first1=Shirley |last2=Cavalcanti |first2=Taciana B. |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |access-date=28 March 2011}} or rarely inferior. The two to many carpels can be fused together (syncarpous), with two to numerous ovules in each locule, with axile placentation of the ovules.

Heterostyly – the presence of two (distylous) or three (tristylous) distinct flower morphs within a species differing in the lengths of the pistil and stamens – is common within the Lythraceae.

The fruit is usually a dry, dehiscent capsule, occasionally a berry. The seeds are usually flattened and/or winged, with a multilayered outer integument. Epidermal hairs that expand and become mucilaginous when wet are found in about half the genera.

The Lythraceae are widely distributed, but with most species tropical and some temperate. They are absent from the Sahara and most arid regions of Australia. Many species occur in aquatic or semi-aquatic habitats (Decodon, Didiplis, Rotala, Sonneratia, Trapa). The oldest fossils of the family are pollen from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) of Wyoming in western North America, around 82 to 81 million years old.{{Cite journal |last=Graham |first=Shirley A. |date=March 2013 |title=Fossil Records in the Lythraceae |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12229-012-9116-1 |journal=The Botanical Review |language=en |volume=79 |issue=1 |pages=48–145 |doi=10.1007/s12229-012-9116-1 |bibcode=2013BotRv..79...48G |s2cid=17518452 |issn=0006-8101|url-access=subscription }}

Edible crops include the pomegranate (Punica granatum) and the water caltrop (Trapa bicornis or T. natans). The pomegranate is cultivated for the fleshy arils surrounding the seeds, and the water caltrop for its seeds. Henna (Lawsonia inermis) is cultivated for the dye of the same name, derived from its leaves.

Ornamentals are grown from a number of genera, including Cuphea, Lagerstroemia (crape myrtles), and Lythrum (loosestrifes).

Purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) is an invasive exotic weed of wetlands throughout Canada and the United States.{{cite web |url=http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=LYSA2 |title=Plants Profile for Lythrum salicaria (purple loosestrife) |website=PLANTS Database |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |access-date=June 6, 2016 }}

Within the order Myrtales, the family Lythraceae is most closely related to the Onagraceae, with the Combretaceae sister to both families. Molecular phylogeny work has led to the inclusion of the formerly recognized families Duabangaceae, Punicaceae, Sonneratiaceae, and Trapaceae.

Lythraceae consists of five subfamilies:

Authority: de Jussieu ex Walker-Arnott, 1832; previously 'Lythraceae sensu stricto'{{cite journal |author1=Christenhusz, M. J. M. |author2=Byng, J. W. | 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 }}

{{div col|colwidth=20em}}

1. Adenaria
2. Ammannia {{Au|L.}} (synonym Hionanthera)
3. Capuronia
4. Crenea
5. Cuphea
6. Decodon
7. Didiplis
8. Diplusodon
9. Galpinia
10. Ginoria
11. Haitia
12. Heimia
13. Koehneria
14. Lafoensia
15. Lagerstroemia
16. Lawsonia
17. Lourtella
18. Lythrum
19. Nesaea
20. Pehria
21. Pemphis
22. Physocalymma
23. Pleurophora
24. Rotala
25. Tetrataxis
26. Woodfordia

{{div col end}}

• Subfamily Punicoideae (Horan. 1834) S. A. Graham, Thorne & Reveal 1998 = 'Punicaceae',{{cite journal | author=Graham, S. A., R.F. Thorne, & J.L. Reveal | year=1998 | title=Validation of subfamily names in Lythraceae. | journal=Taxon | volume=47 | issue=2 | pages=435–436 | jstor=1223775 | doi=10.2307/1223775}} 1 genus:

:*Punica

• Subfamily Sonneratioideae (Engl. & Gilg 1924) S. A. Graham, Thorne & Reveal 1998, 1 genus:

:*Sonneratia

• Subfamily Duabangoideae (Takht. 1986) S. A. Graham, Thorne & Reveal 1998 = 'Duabangaceae', 1 genus:

:*Duabanga

• Subfamily Trapoideae Voigt 1845 = 'Trapaceae', 1 genus:

:*Trapa

• Subfamily Incertae sedis

:*†Shirleya Pigg & DeVore (Miocene, Washington state){{cite journal |last1=Pigg |first1=K.B. |last2= DeVore |first2=M.L. |year=2005 |title= Shirleya grahamae gen. et sp. nov.(Lythraceae), Lagerstroemia-like fruits from the middle Miocene Yakima Canyon flora, central Washington State, USA |journal= American Journal of Botany |volume=92 |issue=2 |pages= 242–251 |doi=10.3732/ajb.92.2.242|pmid=21652401 }}

Image:Lagerstroemia indica 0002.jpg|Crepe myrtle

Image:Lagerstroemia_indica-petals.jpg|Crepe myrtle flowers - the petals emerge from the calyx tube.

Image:Blutweiderich 0506112.jpg|Lythrum salicaria

Image:Cuphea ignea1.jpg|Cuphea ignea

Image:Cuphea nudicostata 3.jpg|Cuphea nudicostata

Image:Pomegranate flower and fruit.jpg|Pomegranate

File:Unidentified Rotala species W IMG_3730.jpg|Rotala species

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• {{cite journal|author1=Little S. A. |author2=Stockey R. A. |author3=and Keating |author4=R. C. |year=2004|title=Duabanga-like leaves from the Middle Eocene Princeton chert and comparative leaf histology of Lythraceae sensu lato|journal=American Journal of Botany|volume=91|pages=1126–1139|doi= 10.3732/ajb.91.7.1126|pmid=21653468|issue=7|doi-access=free}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/FACULTY/CARR/lythr.htm |title=Lythraceae |last=Carr |first=Gerald |publisher=University of Hawaii |access-date=2008-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205132651/http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/carr/lythr.htm |archive-date=2008-12-05 |url-status=dead }}

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Category:Myrtales families