The Aristolochiaceae () are a family, the birthwort family, of with eight genera and about 400 known species belonging to the order Piperales. The type genus is Aristolochia Carl Linnaeus
Description
They are mostly
Perennial plant,
,
, or
. The membranous, cordate simple
Leaf are spread out, growing alternately along the stem on leaf stalks. The margins are commonly entire. No
are present. The
are large to medium-sized, growing in the leaf axils. They are bilaterally or radially symmetrical.
Classification
Aristolochiaceae are
, a basal group of
Flowering plant which are not part of the large categories of
or
. As of APG IV (2016), the former families
Hydnoraceae and
Lactoridaceae are included, because exclusion would make Aristolochiaceae in the traditional sense
paraphyletic.
Some newer classification schemes, such as the update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, place the family Aristolochiaceae in the order Piperales, but it is still quite common, though superseded, for the Aristolochiaceae to be assigned, sometimes with some other families, their own order (Aristolochiales).
Phylogeny
Eight genera are accepted –
Aristolochia,
Asarum,
Euglypha,
Hydnora,
Lactoris,
Prosopanche,
Saruma, and
Thottea.
[ Aristolochiaceae Juss. Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 18 January 2024.]
Four assemblages can be distinguished in the genus-level cladogram of Aristolochiaceae:
-
Aristolochia is closely related to Thottea.
-
Hydnora is closely related to Prosopanche.
-
Lactoris occupies an isolated position.
-
Asarum is closely related to Saruma, and both genera display a deep-branching position in the family.
Phytochemistry
Many members of
Aristolochia and some of
Asarum contain the toxin aristolochic acid, which discourages herbivores and is known to be
in
.
Aristolochia species are carcinogenic to
.
Genomics
The complete
plastid genome sequence of one species of Aristolochiaceae,
Hydnora visseri, has been determined. As compared to the chloroplast genome of its closest photosynthetic relatives, the
plastome of
Hydnora visseri shows extreme reduction in both size (ca. 27 kilo
base pairs) and gene content (24 genes appear to be functional).
This Aristolochiaceae species therefore possesses one of the smallest plastid genomes among
.
Ecology
Pipevine swallowtail butterflies lay their eggs on pipevine (
Aristolochia species), and the
Caterpillar feed on the plant, but are not affected by the
toxin, which then offers the adult butterfly protection against
.
Fossil record
The earliest records of the family are the
fossil seeds of †
Aristospermum huberi and †
Siratospermum mauldinense from the
Early Cretaceous of
Portugal and
Virginia, United States.
[ The oldest fossil leaf remains are of † Aristolochites dentata from the Late Cretaceous of Nebraska. Pollen record of † Aristolochiacidites viluiensis has been described from Upper Cretaceous sediments of Siberia. Fossil wood is known from the Deccan Traps of India some 66 million years ago. Leaf fossils of Aristolochia are known from the Early and Late Tertiary period of North America and the Late Tertiary period of Abkhazia, Ukrainia and Poland.][Evolution and Diversification of Land Plants by Kunio Iwatsuki and Peter H. Raven, Springer Science & Business Media, 6. des. 2012] Fossil leaf remains of † Aristolochia austriaca have been described from Late Miocene sediments of the Pellendorf site at the Vienna Basin in Austria. † A. austriaca is most similar to the extant Mediterranean species A. rotunda and A. baetica
Palaeontological Association, May 2014
External links
