Winteraceae

▪ plant family

      family of aromatic trees and shrubs of the order Magnoliales that contains 4–7 genera and 60–90 species, depending on the authority consulted. All but four species are native to Southeast Asia and Australasia. Members of the family have wood without water-conducting cells; acrid sap; gland-dotted, leathery, smooth-margined leaves; and small, usually bisexual flowers in clusters, with two to six sepals, petals in two or more series, several stamens, and one to several carpels (structure units of the female flower parts).

      Many species have medicinal qualities; the best known is the South American Winter's bark (Drimys winteri), a 15-metre (50-foot) tree. It has peppery, hot-tasting leaves and bark. The bark was formerly used as a preventive against scurvy. Winter's bark has leathery, elliptic-shaped leaves; red-tinged shoots; and jasmine-scented, cream-coloured, 8- to 12-petaled, 2.5-centimetre (1-inch) flowers in clusters. A closely related Central American species with similar medicinal attributes, D. granadensis, is the only North American member of the family.

      Pseudowintera colorata, of New Zealand, has peppery, elliptic, red-blotched leaves on a 10-metre (32-foot) tree. Other genera of the family are Takhtajania and Zygogynum.

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