Illiciaceae

Illiciaceae A.C.Sm. was a family of flowering plants recognized in a number of systems of plant taxonomy. The Illiciaceae is not recognized as a distinct family by the APG III system of plant taxonomy, the most well accepted system in use today.

The APG II system treated Illiciaceae as a family that may either be treated as part of another family, the Schisandraceae or allows for the optional segregation of the Illiciaceae from the Schisandraceae. The Illiciaceae as an optional segregate family then has the traditional circumscription of other taxonomic systems, consisting of a single genus, Illicium. The updated APG III system of 2009 does not recognize this family and includes Illicium in the Schisandraceae.

The family consists of shrubs or small trees usually with volatile aromatic compounds. The leaves are evergreen, simple, alternate, spiral (sometimes crowded towards the tips of the twigs), leathery, petiolate, pinnately veined, non-sheathing, gland-dotted or not gland-dotted; also are aromatic, or without marked odour. The lamina is entire.

The flowers are hermaphrodite, and usually showy, ranging in size from small to large, and composed of numerous distinct parts that change grade slightly as they spiral around the receptacle. The parts begin with a perianth of whorled tepals, with the outer whorls more sepaloid, graduating to more petaloid inner tepals. The stamens are also numerous and in a whorl. The carpels are arranged in a whorl, are separate, and number from 5 to numerous carpels in each whorl, each carpel containing a single ovule.

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