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Shrubs, small trees or lianas; indumentum often of simple or stellate hairs. Leaves alternate, spirally arranged, rarely opposite, simple, rarely pinnatisect to pinnate (not in Australia), entire, rarely toothed or lobed; stipules absent or minute and soon deciduous or fused to petiole. Inflorescence a solitary flower or terminal or axillary cyme or raceme. Flowers actinomorphic to zygomorphic, bisexual, rarely androdioecious, often large and conspicuous. Sepals (2–) 3–5 (–18), imbricate, persistent. Petals (2–) 3–5 (–7), imbricate, deciduous, usually yellow or white. Stamens 3–many, surrounding the ovary or grouped to one side of it, hypogynous, usually free; staminodes occasionally present. Anthers 2-locular, basifixed, opening by longitudinal slits or apical pores. Gynoecium of 1–20 free or basally connate carpels; styles free, stigma simple. Fruit a dehiscent follicle or capsule, rarely indehiscent. Seed often arillate, embryo small, straight, endosperm copious.
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Common Names
Diagnostic features: Woody shrubs to trees or climbers, often with simple or branched trichomes. Leaves alternate, simple, usually with parallel lateral venation. Flowers usually showy; perianth imbricate in bud, mostly in whorls of 5, petals deciduous; stamens often numerous; carpels free.
Representative Specimens
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Mainly pantropical family with 11 genera and c. 500 species, with a relatively high proportion of species in subtropical and temperate Australia. Represented in Australia by 3 genera and about 280 species.
Habitat
Phenology
Ecology
Etymology: Based on the genus Dillenia L., named after German-born botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius (1684–1747).
Some species, particularly in the pantropical genus Dillenia, have been widely used in Indigenous medicine to treat cancers, wounds, jaundice, fever, cough, diabetes mellitus, and diarrhea. A few species, such as Dillenia indica, have edible fruits, while others are planted as minor ornamentals.
Notes
Taxonomic Notes: Originally described as order Dilleneae by Salisbury to distinguish taxa from order Magnoliae. The placement of Dilleniaceae within the angiosperm classification tree remains unclear; see Aymard (2009) for discussion of possible relationships.
Selected references: Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 161: 105–121.
Aymard, G.A. (2009). Neotropikey Neotropical Dilleniaceae, in Milliken, W., Klitgrd, B. & Baracat, A. (eds), Neotropikey - Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics. http://www.kew.org/science/tropamerica/neotropikey/families/Dilleniaceae.htm. [accessed 3 July 2018]
Baines (1981). Australian Plant Genera: an etymological dictionary of Australian plant genera. (Society for Growing Australian Plants: Chipping North).
Bentham, G. (1863). Dilleniaceae, in Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory Volume I. Ranunculaceae to Anacardiaceae, pp. 16–48. (Lovell Reeve: London).
Brown, R. (1814). General remarks, geographical and systematical, on the botany of Terra Australis. (W. Bulmer: London).
Curtis, W.M. & Morris, D.I. (1975). Dilleniaceae, The Student's Flora of Tasmania 2nd edn, 1: 21–25.
Gray, A.M. (2009). Dilleniaceae, version 2009: 2, in Duretto, M.F. (ed.), Flora of Tasmania Online. (Tasmanian Herbarium, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery: Hobart). ISBN 978-1-921599-22-4 (PDF). http://demo1.tmag.tas.gov.au/treatments/families/Dilleniaceae/Dilleniaceae.html [accessed November 2018]
Horn, J.W. (2009). Phylogenetics of Dilleniaceae using sequence data from four plastid loci (rbcL, infA, rps4, rpl16 intron). International Journal of Plant Sciences 170: 794–813.
Horn, J.W. (2006). Dilleniaceae, in Kubitzki, K. (ed.), The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants 9: 132–154. (Springer: Berlin).
Mabberley, D.J. (2008). The Plant Book. (3rd) (University Press: Cambridge).
Harden, G.J. & Everett, J. (1990). Dilleniaceae, in Harden, G.J. (ed.), Flora of New South Wales 1: 293–303. (New South Wales University Press: Kensington). Available in PlantNET New South Wales Flora Online: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=fm&name=Dilleniaceae [accessed 3 July 2018].
Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, April 2015 [and more or less continuously updated since]. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ [Accessed 3 July 2018].
Toelken, H.R. (1996). Dilleniaceae, in Walsh, N.G. & Entwisle, T.J. (eds), Flora of Victoria Volume 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 300–313. (Inkata Press: Melbourne). Updated by Messina, A. (2018), in VICFLORA: https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/c7b7118e-07f4-45a9-bad6-bbcaa21e203a [accessed 3 September 2018]
Profile originally published in: First published 14 November 2018.
Authorship
This profile was last updated on Friday, July 2, 2021
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