Theaceae

  • Family

    Theaceae (Magnoliophyta)

  • Scientific Name

    Theaceae

  • Common Names

    Tea Family

  • Description

    Number of genera: 40

    Number of species: 600

    Description (from PLANTAE): Trees or shrubs. Plants usually monoecious (dioecious in Eurya). Leaves alternate, simple, evergreen or deciduous; blades coriaceous or chartaceous, the margins entire or toothed. Flowers usually solitary, sometimes fasciculate, axillary, usually bisexual, actinomorphic, bracteate; perianth of sepals and petals, often spirally arranged, the sepals usually 5 (rarely 4-7), distinct or basally connate, persistent or deciduous, imbricate, the petals 5 (rarely 4 or more), distinct or basally connate, convolute or imbricate; androecium free or adnate to base of petals, the stamens distinct or monodelphous basally or fascicled in 3-5 bundles opposite and adnate to the petals, the anthers 2-celled, dehiscence usually longitudinal, rarely poricidal; gynoecium syncarpous, superior, the carpels mostly 3-5, the locules mostly 3-5, the placentation axile, the ovules usually 2 or more in locule (rarely 1), the styles as many as the carpels and distinct or connate. Fruit usually a loculicidal capsule, usually subligneous, sometimes fleshy and indehiscent.

    Distribution (from PLANTAE): Tropical and subtropical some reaching temperate parts of eastern Asia and eastern North America.

  • Floras and Monographs

    Theaceae: [Book] Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.