.jpg?width=800)
Image: Wikimedia Commons (See link for license)
Custard-apple family
Annonaceae
バンレイシ科
The largest family in Magnoliales with about 2,500 species centered in the tropics. Includes important fruit and aromatic plants such as sugar apple, cherimoya, and ylang-ylang. Ylang-ylang is cultivated in Okinawa. Flowers are fleshy and predominantly beetle-pollinated.
Key Characteristics
- ●6 petals (3 inner and 3 outer), fleshy and fragrant
- ●Predominantly beetle-pollinated
- ●Numerous stamens and carpels in spiral arrangement (primitive trait)
- ●Fruit an aggregate or individual fruitlets
Morphological Traits
A family may include species with different trait values — multiple values indicate the range within the family.
Leaf arrangement
Alternate
Leaf type
Simple
Venation
Pinnate
Leaf margin
Entire
Growth form
Shrub / Tree / Vine
Evergreen/Deciduous
Evergreen
Leaf dissection
Undivided
Stipules
Absent
Aromatic
Aromatic / None
Flower symmetry
Actinomorphic
Petal count
Many
Petal fusion
Fused
Ovary position
Superior
Stamen count
3-4 / 6
Plant sex
Dioecious / Hermaphrodite / Monoecious
Phylogenetic Position
Angiosperms > Magnoliids > Magnoliales > Annonaceae
Divergence Era
Late Cretaceous (ca. 90 Ma onwards)
Representative Genera
Related Evolution Events
- ・Retention of beetle pollination as an ancestral pollination mode
- ・Diversification of fruits in the tropics and seed dispersal by large mammals
Plants in Custard-apple family on this site
AI-generated, needs verification