Salicaceae
The Salicaceae is the willow family of flowering plants. The traditional family (Salicaceae sensu stricto) included the willows, poplar, aspen, and cottonwoods. 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 Scyphostegiaceae and many of the former Flacourtiaceae.
| Salicaceae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
| Salix alba | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Salicaceae Mirb. |
| Subfamilies | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
In the Cronquist system, the Salicaceae were assigned to their own order, Salicales, and contained three genera (Salix, Populus, and Chosenia). 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, all 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 those that have such toothed margins all 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. 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.