The family is divided into five genera,[7] but studies of DNA sequences have indicated one of these genera should be split.[8] These genera together comprise about 25 species. In the Greater Antilles, many of these species are rare and restricted to small ranges. As of 2008, five of the species were newly recognized and not yet named.[8]
The three (rarely 2) sepals are thick, coriaceous, and imbricate.
The petals number (4-)5-12, in 1-2 (-4) unlike whorls or spirally arranged, slender, imbricate in bud, usually free (connate at the base in Canella and halfway to the apex in Cinnamosma).
The fruit is a berry with a persistent calyx, with two or more seeds. Cinnamosma macrocarpa, in the Madagascan genus Cinnamosma, has the largest fruit in the family, sometimes reaching 6 cm (2.4 in) by 9 cm (3.5 in).
Seeds have exotestae (the outer layer of the testa) only; the tegmen (the inner layer of the testa) is collapsed. The seed coat has oily idioblasts; the endosperm is abundant and oily (ruminate in Cinnamosma). The embryo is small and straight to slightly curved, with two cotyledons.
Pollen occurs in monads, and is delicate and monosulcate (usually with 10% of the grain trichotomosulcate); apertures are distal, exine, generally tectate, and granular, intectate, and reticulate in Cinnamosma; grains are small and hardly ornamented in Cinnamodendron and Warburgia, largest and most highly decorated in Canella and Pleodendron. The pollen is generally similar to that of the Myristicaceae, which had at one time caused some systematists to believe the two families were closely related.
Synapomorphies for Canellaceae include monadelphous stamens, parietal placentation, and campylotropous ovules.[8]
Other notable traits include the conspicuous lenticels, the aromatic bark, the peppery taste of the leaves, the three (rarely two) fleshy sepals, and the berry with reniform seeds.[8]
Some sources indicate Cinnamodendron has 20-40 stamens, contrary to the sources that are regarded here as reliable. The very large stamen numbers (20 to 40), are probably counts of thecae or microsporangia.
The saro, or green sandalwood, (also known locally as mandravasarotra), Cinnamosma fragrans, is native to Madagascar and is exported from there to India to be burned in ceremonies. It is not related to the true sandalwoods, which are in the family Santalaceae.[citation needed]
Commercial production of "white cinnamon" from C. winterana has ceased,[11] but small-scale, local production continues. The Canellaceae have long had local use as aromatic plants and as herbal medicines.
In this article, the genus Capsicodendron is maintained in synonymy with Cinnamodendron, although preliminary molecular phylogeneticstudies separate Capsicodendron from Cinnamodendron and place Capsicodendron closer to Cinnamosma and Warburgia than to Cinnamodendron. This placement is not corroborated by morphology. The currently recognized genera in Canellaeae can be distinguished as follows:[8]
In 1756, Patrick Browne applied the nameCanella to the species now known as Canella winterana.[17] He did not add a specific epithet to create a binomial.[18] The generic name is derived from canela, the Spanish word for cinnamon, but the Spanish word is derived from the Latincanna, meaning "a reed", or from the related Greekkanna, which refers to a piece of rolled bark.[19]
The genus Canella was not adopted by Linnaeus, who resurrectedWinterania in the second edition of Species Plantarum in 1762.[20] He assigned to Winterania a single species, Winterania canella, which was equivalent to the species he had previously called Laurus winterana.
The family Canellaceae was established by Carl von Martius in 1832 and was defined as consisting of only the genus Canella.[24][25]Stephan Endlicher divided Canella in 1840, creating the new genus Cinnamodendron. Cinnamosma was erected in 1867, Warburgia in 1895, and Pleodendron in 1899. Capsicodendron was erected in 1933. Some authors accept Capsicodendron and assign to it two species, Capsicodendron pimenteira and Capsicodendron dinisii.[11] Other authors subsume Capsicodendron into Cinnamodendron and C. pimenteira into C. dinisii.[8]
One of these groups is related to the African genera Cinnamosma and Warburgia, and might be paraphyletic over them. It consists of eight species, one of which was named in 2005.[26] Two other species in this group have not been formally named and described in the scientific literature.[8] This group is restricted to South America. Since it includes the type species, Cinnamodendron axillare, it will retain the name Cinnamodendron.
The other group of Cinnamodendron species is most closely related to Pleodendron and is restricted to the Greater Antilles. It consists of six species, two of which remain unnamed.[8] The name Antillodendron has been proposed for this group, but this name is considered by some to be invalid because it was not effectively published.[27]
^1813 illustration, Tab. 71 from Adolphus Ypey, Vervolg ob de Avbeeldingen der artseny-gewassen met derzelver Nederduitsche en Latynsche beschryvingen, Eersde Deel, 1813 Canella winteriana (syn. C. alba), Canellaceae published by Kurt Stüber
^Walter S. Judd, Christopher S. Campbell, Elizabeth A. Kellogg, Peter F. Stevens, and Michael J. Donoghue. 2008. Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach, Third Edition. Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA, USA. ISBN978-0-87893-407-2
^ abVernon H. Heywood (with David J. Mabberley). 2007. "Canellaceae" page 84. In: Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. Flowering Plant Families of the World. Firefly Books: Ontario, Canada. (2007). ISBN978-1-55407-206-4.
^Anthony Huxley, Mark Griffiths, and Margot Levy (1992). The New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening. The Macmillan Press, Limited: London. The Stockton Press: New York. ISBN978-0-333-47494-5 (set).
^ abcdefghijkJackeline Salazar and Kevin Nixon. 2008. "New Discoveries in the Canellaceae in the Antilles: How Phylogeny Can Support Taxonomy". Botanical Review74(1):103-111. doi:10.1007/s12229-008-9002-z
^Friedrich Ehrendorfer and Maria Lambrou. 2000. "Chromosomes of Takhtajania, other Winteraceae, and Canellaceae: phylogenetic implications". Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden87(3):407-413.
^ abThomas A. Zanoni. 2004. "Canellaceae". page 81. In: Nathan Smith, Scott A. Mori, Andrew Henderson, Dennis Wm. Stevenson, and Scott W. Heald (editors). Flowering Plants of the Neotropics. Princeton University Press and The New York Botanical Garden. ISBN978-0-691-11694-5.
^Andrew Dalby. 2001. "Christopher Columbus, Gonzalo Pizarro, and the Search for Cinnamon". Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture1(2):40-49. (See external links below).
^ abCarolus Linnaeus. 1737. Hortus Cliffortianus:488. Lubrecht and Cramer. Amsterdam, Netherlands. (See External links below).
^Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné). 1753. Species Plantarum, 1st edition, vol. 1, page 371. Holmiae: Impensis Laurentii Salvii (Lars Salvius). (A facsimile with an introduction by William T. Stearn was published by the Ray Society in 1957).
^ abPatrick Browne. 1756. The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica:275. T.Osborne & J. Shipton: London, UK.
^Umberto Quattrocchi. 2000. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names volume I. CRC Press: Boca Raton; New York; Washington, DC, USA. / London, UK. ISBN978-0-8493-2675-2 (vol. I). (see External links below).
^Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné). 1762. Species Plantarum, 2nd edition, vol. 1, page 636. Holmiae: Impensis Laurentii Salvii (Lars Salvius).
^Johan Andreas Murray. 1784. pages 443 and 507. In: Caroli a Linné eqvitis Systema vegetabilivm : secvndvm classes ordines genera species cvm characteribvs et differentiis, 14th edition. Johann Christian Dieterich: Gottingen, Germany.
^George Simonds Boulger. date?. "Samuel Dale", entry 385. In: Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 13.
^Joseph Gaertner. 1788. pages 373 and 374. In: De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum. Sumtibus Auctoris, Typis Academiae Carolinae. Stuttgart, Germany. (A facsimile edition was published by Nabu Press in 2010. ISBN978-1-147-85791-7).
^James L. Reveal. 2008 onward. A checklist of suprageneric names for extant vascular plants. At: Home Page of James L. Reveal and C. Rose Broome. (See External links below).
^Carl von Martius (1832). Nov. Gen. Sp. Pl. 3: 168, 170. {{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
^Barry E. Hammel and Nelson A. Zamora. 2005. "Pleodendron costaricense (Canellaceae), a new species for Costa Rica". Lankesteriana5(3):211-218.