Calycanthaceae
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| Calycanthaceae | |
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| File:Calycanthus floridus - sweet shrub - desc-flower.jpg | |
| Calycanthus floridus | |
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Calycanthaceae
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The Calycanthaceae (sweetshrubs or spicebushes) are a small family of flowering plants in the order Laurales. The family contains three genera and only 10 known species (Christenhusz & Byng 2016 [2]), restricted to warm temperate and tropical regions:
- Calycanthus (three species; western and southeastern North America and one species in eastern Asia)
- Chimonanthus (six species; eastern Asia)
- Idiospermum (one species; Queensland, Australia)
They are aromatic, deciduous shrubs growing to 2–4 m tall, except for Idiospermum, which is a large evergreen tree. The flowers are white to red, with spirally arranged tepals. DNA-based phylogenies indicate the Northern Hemisphere Calycanthus and Chimonanthus diverged from each other in the mid-Miocene, while the Australian Idiospermum had already diverged by the Upper Cretaceous and likely represents a remnant of a former Gondwanan distribution of Calycanthaceae that included South America, as indicated by the occurrence of Cretaceous Calycanthaceae fossils in Brazil.
