English: Coco plum family
Botany: 18 genera: ± 530 species; trees, shrubs; leptocaul; tropical, subtropical; Americas; silica bodies.
Balanopaceae: 1 genus, Balanops.
Dichapetalaceae: 3 genera: Dichapetalum, Stephanopodium, Tapura; ± 165 species; trees, shrubs or lianas; tropical, subtropical.
Euphroniaceae: 1 genus, Euphronia.
Trigoniaceae: 4 genera: Humbertiodendron, Trigonia, Trigoniastrum, Trigoniodendron; 28 species; tropical;
Madagascar, Southeast Asia, Central and South America.
TaxonomyChrysobalanaceae was formerly placed as a subfamily of
Rosaceae, as a family in
Rosales, exceptionally as an order in Myrtiflorae, branched with
Elaeagnaceae as sister group of
Polygalaceae.
In the
Apg3 classification with molecular cladistic analysis it iswas in
Malpighiales.
Dichapetalaceae,
Euphroniaceae,
Trigoniaceae are included in a more extended
Chrysobalanaceae family in the
Apg3 classification.
In the
Plant theory Chrysobalanaceae is treated in the same way.
Balanopaceae is also included in
Chrysobalanaceae.
Chrysobalanaceae is placed in
Subphase 7.
Region: Amazon; some of the species contain silica in their bodies for rigidity and so the mesophyll often has sclerenchymatous idioblasts. The widespread species
Chrysobalanus icaco produces a plum-like fruit and the plant is commonly known as the coco plum.