Salicaceae

{{Short description|Family of plants}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossilrange|50|0|Eocene - recent|ref={{Cite web |title=Malpighiales|url=https://mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/orders/malpighialesweb.htm|access-date=2023-06-16 |website=www.mobot.org}}}}

| image = 20110716Salix alba.jpg

| image_caption = Salix alba

| taxon = Salicaceae

| authority = Mirb.{{cite web |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/family.pl?985 |title=Salicaceae Mirb., nom. cons. |work=Germplasm Resources Information Network |publisher=United States Department of Agriculture |date=2003-01-17 |access-date=2010-02-04}}

| subdivision_ranks = Subfamilies

| subdivision_ref = {{citation |last=Stevens |first=P.F. |author-link=Peter F. Stevens|date=2015|orig-year=1st. Pub. 2001 |title=Angiosperm Phylogeny Website |url=http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apweb/|access-date=28 January 2021}}

| subdivision = *Salicoideae

• Samydoideae
• Scyphostegioideae

| synonyms = {{unbulleted list

|Bembiciaceae

|Caseariaceae

|Flacourtiaceae

|Homaliaceae

|Poliothyrsidaceae

|Prockiaceae

|Samydaceae

|Scyphostegiaceae

}}

}}

File:Leaf morphology tooth salicoid.png

File:Pobat salicoid margin.jpg leaf margin showing a salicoid tooth. The brownish-yellow area in the axil of the tooth is the glandular seta.]]

The Salicaceae are the willow family of flowering plants. The traditional family (Salicaceae sensu stricto) includes the willows, poplars. Genetic studies summarized by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) have greatly expanded the circumscription of the family to contain 56 genera and about 1220 species, including the tropical Scyphostegiaceae and many of the former Flacourtiaceae.{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/4110825 |first=Mark W. |last=Chase |author2=Sue Zmarzty |author3=M. Dolores Lledó |author4=Kenneth J. Wurdack |author5=Susan M. Swensen |author6= Michael F. Fay |year=2002 |title=When in doubt, put it in Flacourtiaceae: a molecular phylogenetic analysis based on plastid rbcL DNA sequences |jstor=4110825 |journal=Kew Bulletin |volume=57 |issue=1 |pages=141–181|bibcode=2002KewBu..57..141C }}{{cite journal | author = 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 | publisher = Magnolia Press | doi-access = free }}Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). [http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ Angiosperm Phylogeny Website]. Version 9, June 2008 (and more or less continuously updated since).

In the Cronquist system, the Salicaceae were assigned to their own order, Salicales, and contained three genera, Salix, Populus, and Chosenia (now a synonym of Salix). Recognized to be closely related to the Violaceae and Passifloraceae, the family is placed by the APG in the order Malpighiales.

Under the new circumscription, most members of the family are trees or shrubs that have simple leaves with alternate arrangement, and temperate members are usually deciduous. Most members have serrate or dentate leaf margins, and many of those that have such toothed margins exhibit salicoid teeth, a salicoid tooth being one in which a vein enters the tooth, expands, and terminates at or near the apex, near which are spherical and glandular protuberances called setae. Sometimes the glands will deflate and appear torus (doughnut) shaped. Some members of the family exhibit violoid or theoid teeth, characters along with presence of an aril and introrse anther dehiscence that are sometimes used to split the family into three families, Salicaceae sensu medio, Samydaceae, and Scyphostegiaceae.Samarakoon, T., and M.H. Alford. 2019. [https://doi.org/10.3417/2018307 New Names and Combinations in Neotropical Samydaceae] Novon 27: 65-71.Wurdack, K.J., and C.C. Davis. 2009. [https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.0800207 Malpighiales phylogenetics: Gaining ground on one of the most recalcitrant clades in the angiosperm tree of life] American Journal of Botany 96: 1551-1570. Members of the family often have flowers which are reduced and inconspicuous, and all have ovaries that are superior or half-inferior with parietal placentation.{{Cite book|last=Judd, Walter S.|title=Plant systematics : a phylogenetic approach|date=January 2015|isbn=978-1-60535-389-0|edition=Fourth|location=Sunderland, MA|oclc=920680553}}