LAURACEAE

Key Characters:Magnoliid syndromeGreen twigs, ascending secondariesTiny flowers with 2–3 stamen

whorls and flap dehiscenceFruits with cupules

SassafrasLAURACEAE

Cannamomum

magnoliids

monocotsCurrent

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Tree

for Flowering Plants2016

LAURACEAE

current history of the order Laurales - APG website

Morphology

Cannamomum

Persea

Beilschmiedia

Ocotea

folded carpel portion

ascidiate base stamens

Lauraceae - flower development

Ocotea lancifolia, Photo of W. Thomas 10597.

Dispersal, Life Form

Beilschmiedia

and the resplendant quetzal

Ethereal/Essential Oils

Cineole from Laurus nobilis

Linalool from Aniba (Brazilian rosewood)

Safrole from Sassafras

Cinnamaldehyde, from Cinnamomum (cinnamon)

A cabinet of ethereal oils from the Lauraceae

essential (ethereal) oils: more or less volatile and often aromatic substances made up of various kinds of terpenesTerpenes (terpenoids): usually hydrophilic compounds consisting of an isoprenoid skeleton, subdivided according to number of carbon atoms10 = mono15 = sesqui 20 = di

Isoprene (isoprenoid): a volatile unsaturated branched chain five-carbon hydrocarbon that is the basic unit of terpenes

Isoprene, C5 H8.

monoterpenoids: with a base of C10 H16, occur in essential oils and are made up of one or two isoprene rings or an open chain of isoprene units;

They are colorless, water-insoluble, volatile, with fragrant odor.

All of these are also found in the Lauraceae

Swallowtail butterflies and Lauraceae

Distribution of Sassafras species, from Nie et al., 2007

Sassafras and its allies:Phylogeny from Nie et al., 2007

Mid EoceneMid Eocene

HumidHumidEquatorialEquatorialForestForest

Arid Arid

Semi-aridSemi-aridTemperateTemperate

WarmWarmTemperateTemperate

WarmerWarmerTemperateTemperate

Semi-arid Semi-arid tropicaltropical

Key Characters:Magnoliid syndromeGreen twigs, ascending

secondaries, leaves clusteredTiny flowers with 2–3 stamen

whorls and flap dehiscenceFruits with cupules

SassafrasLAURACEAE

Cannamomum

Set Aside

Key Characters:Magnoliid syndromeGreen twigs, ascending

secondaries, leaves clusteredTiny flowers with 2–3 stamen

whorls and flap dehiscenceFruits with cupules

Sassafras

LAURACEAE

Sassafras

Beilschmiedia etc.

Gondwana genera

Persea - avocado

Lindera - spicebush

Laurus - bayleaf

Cinnamomum

Ocotea

boreotropicalmadrean-neotropical

austral

DNA: 17-20 ybp

worldwide

Persea americana - the avocado

i - morning phasej - afternoon phase

Persea borbonia - red bay

Ocotea-Nectandra

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/soltislab/FGP_Education/Persea.html

Chanderbali, A.S, van der Werff, H., Renner, S.S. 2001. Phylogeny and historical biogeography of Lauraceae: Evidence from the chloroplast and nuclear genomes. Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 88: 104-134.

Gottlieb, O. R 1972. Chemosystematics of the Lauraceae. Phytochemistry, 11: 1537- 1570. The various chemical constituents of the Lauraceae are discussed in relation to the taxonomy of the family. Although there is a great paucity of data, the variation in the arylpropanoids, alkaloids, flavanoids and terpene constituents is in general in agreement with the subdivision of the family put forward by Kostermans.

Qiu, Y.-L. Lee, J., Bernasconi-Quadroni, F., Soltis, D.E., Soltis, P.S., Zanis, M., Zimmer, E.A., Chen, Z. Savolainen, V. Chase, M.W. 2000. Phylogeny of basal angiosperms: analyses of five genes from three genomes. Int. J. Plant Sci. 161 (6 Suppl.): S3-S27.

Simić, A., Soković, M. D., Ristić, M., Grujić‐Jovanović, S., Vukojević, J., & Marin, P. D. (2004). The chemical composition of some Lauraceae essential oils and their antifungal activities. Phytotherapy Research, 18(9), 713-717.

Soltis, D.E., Soltis, P.S., Albert, V.A., Oppenheimer, D.G, dePamphilis, C.W., Frohlich, M.W., Theißen, G. 2002. Missing links: The genetic arcitecture of the flower and floral diversification. Trends Plant Sci. 7: 22-31.

Lauraceae references: