Rhizophorales

Article By:

Barkley, Theodore M. Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

Last reviewed:2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.587050

An order of flowering plants, division Magnoliophyta (Angiospermae), in the subclass Rosidae of the class Magnoliopsida (dicotyledons). The order contains a single family, Rhizophoraceae, with about 100 species widely distributed in the tropics. The plants are mostly tanniferous trees and shrubs with the leaves opposite, simple, and entire. The flowers are regular, mostly perfect, and variously perigynous or epigynous. The sepals are four or five and commonly fleshy or leathery; the petals are the same number as the sepals and likewise small and fleshy. The stamens are twice as many as the petals or sometimes more. The pistil has 2–6 fused carpels with two or rarely more ovules per carpel; the fruit is berrylike or rarely a capsule. Most members of the family are inland species, but the most conspicuous group are some 17 species of shoreline shrubs, the mangroves. The fruits of mangroves are viviparous and have distinctive enlarged hypocotyls. The family has been subject to diverse interpretations, and has been associated with the Myrtales and with the Cornales. See also: Magnoliophyta; Magnoliopsida; Plant kingdom

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