English: Acanthus family; Shrimp-plant family.
French: Acanthacees.
Clades:
Verbenales.
Members: 250 genera; 2500 species.
Habitat: tropical, subtropical.
Region: Indonesia, Malaysia, Africa, Brazil, Central America.
Content: alkaloids, phenols, terpenoids, tannins, quinones, cardiac glycosides, saponins, carbohydrates, flavonoids, proteins.
DD:
Silver series, Oxygen, Phosphor.
BotanyHerbs, shrubs, subshrubs, perennial climbers, rarely small or large trees, twining vines or epiphytes; annual and perennial; erect; prostrate or rarely climbing.
Stems: round to quadrangular.
Leaves: simple; opposite; decussate; sinuate; estipulate; usually entire margin; swollen nodeswith cystoliths, calcium carbonate.
Inflorescence: solitary or racemose; axilllary cymes, or spike, raceme.
Flowers: with , conspicious, volucral bracts, bracteoles; colourful; large and showy; petals 5, fussed, connate, tubular; nectar disk.
Fruit: capsule, dehiscing explosively; seeds 2 to 4.
Seeds: borne on hook like retinacula, a small, hooked stalk; surface smooth or roughened; lacking trichomes or pubescent; sometimes with hygroscopic trichomes, expanding when moistened.
TaxonomyIn the
Apg3 classification Acanthaceae is a
Family in
Lamiales.
Acanthaceae was formerly placed in Scrophulariales. The older families
Avicenniaceae, Mendonciaceae, Nelsoniaceae and Thunbergiaceae are included in
Acanthaceae.
In the
Plant theory Verbenales is split off from
Lamiales.
Acanthaceae is in
Subphase 2 in
Verbenales.
Acanthaceae have cystoliths which are small points of calcium carbonate. The
Calcium coincides with the
Phase 2.