Connaraceae

▪ plant family

      family of dicotyledonous flowering plants within the order Oxalidales, and containing 25 genera of trees, shrubs, and shrubby, twining climbers distributed in tropical regions of the world. Except for a few species bearing separate male and female flowers (flower), the flowers are bisexual and have 5 sepals and petals; either 5 or 10 male, pollen-producing structures (stamens); and either 1, 4, or usually 5 separate, one-chambered, female ovule-bearing structures (carpels) positioned above the attachment point of the other floral parts. The carpels have two ovules each, but only one carpel matures into a fruit and only one ovule becomes a seed, which often has a fleshy appendage (aril) attached. The fruit is a follicle, a dry capsulelike or podlike structure that splits open along a single seam.

      Among the largest genera of the order are Connarus (130 species), Rourea (80 to 90 species), Agelaea (50 species), Cnestis (40 species), and Byrsocarpus (20 species). The genus Jollydora, with six species distributed in West Africa, produces flowers and fruits directly on the wood of the trunk and larger branches, a condition called cauliflory.

      Economically, there are few plants of importance in the family. Connarus guianensis of Guyana is the source of one of the zebra woods of commerce. The fruits, seeds, or leaves of many other species are poisonous and are used, among other things, against wild dogs and coyotes in poisoned baits (e.g., Rourea volubilis, R. glabra, and Cnestis polyphylla). Others have properties that make them useful as folk medicines—e.g., to induce vomiting (Aglaea emetica leaves, in Madagascar), as a dysentery treatment (A. villosa leaves, in West Africa), and as an agent against gonorrhea (A. lamarckii leaves, in Madagascar). The bark of R. glabra, when used in tanning, produces a bright purple colour in animal skins.

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