Trees, climbing
shrubs or woody
vines, evergreen, rarely deciduous, glabrous or pubescent, rarely spiny.
Indumentum of simple multicellular hairs or with bicellular
capitula.
Leaves alternate, spiral to distichous, penninerved, brochidodromous, simple or imparipinnate, herbaceous or coriaceous, sometimes very large, with simple dentate edges, sometimes heteromorphic, often the base of the stalk is woody and the base of the foliole is pulvinulate, lacking
stipules,
vernation conduplicate, often dotted with red glands.
Stomata anomocytic or paracytic, usually hypostomatic.
Stems with large radii, complex unilacunar
nodes, without secretory cavities, perulate
buds or not.
Inflorescences in pauci- to multi-floral
panicle, terminal or axillary, often reduced to solitary axillary flower, rarely on
cymes or in
racemes,
peduncles often very short (sub-sessile flowers), bearing zero to numerous small bracts.
Small perfect
flowers, actinomorphic or obliquely zygomorphic, usually pentamerous, sepals, petals and stamens arranged in opposed whorls. Hypogynous disc present, thin, annular, nectariferous, with lobes (sometimes with hardened discoid glands) alternating with the stamens, sometimes with bifid-shaped teeth.
Sepals (4-)5, in a whorl, free or basally fused, equal or with the 2 internal sepals much smaller, imbricate.
Petals (4-)5, in a whorl, free, equal or the 2 internal petals often much smaller (sometimes bifid), imbricate, oppositisepalous, more or less fleshy.
Androecium of (4-)5(-6) elements, 5
stamens or even 2 (opposed to the internal petals) and 3
staminodes, oppositipetalous, free from each other but fused at the base of the petals, filiform filaments, expanded below the anther or forming a collar,
unilocularanthers, dithecal, introrse and bent down, enclosed in external cavities belonging to the adjacent staminode, more or less adherent between themselves, leaving a central pore through which the
style passes, or even extrorse, connective strongly expanded,
dehiscence through transversal slits or valves. Superior
gynoecium, of 2(-3)
carpels, hemicarpic with apically free styles (stylodious) or sincarpic with one short cylindrical or conic style, capitate
stigmas, punctate and moist, or not papillose and dry,
ovules (1-)2 per carpel, hemianatropous to campylotropous, apotropous, unitegmic and crasinucelated, horizontal or pendulous, axial
placentation.
Fruit unilocular or dilocular, asymmetric, dry or drupaceous, indehiscent, monospermatic, sometimes in
schizocarp, with persistent styles,
endocarp stoney or crustaceous, sculpted or foveolate.
Seeds one, with
endosperm scarce or absent, with
condyle,
embryo with curved, elongate
hypocotyl, with 2 flat cotyledons, plicate or coiled (in Ophyocaryon paradoxum).
Pollen tricolpate, prolate, relatively small, semitectate
exine, more or less reticulate.
The anthesis is extremely short. The anthers open within the bud, but enclosed in the staminodes. On maturing the bud opens explosively at the smallest touch releasing the pollen into the air.
Plants from this genus live in humid areas along rivers, in tropical forests or in warm temperatures.
Some species of Meliosma have a limited use in gardening and horticulture.
Fossils
The fossil genus Insitiocarpus has been found in deposits from the
Cenomanian period, while the other extant genera Sabia and Meliosma have been found in European deposits from the
Turonian and the
Maastrichtian, respectively.[1] The appearance of the first Sabiaceae has been dated to 122-118 million years ago.
The Sabiaceae are a group of flowering plants that are included in the
eudicots clade, where they form part of the basal level. In this regard they are similar to the
Proteaceae, with which they share, for example, a nectariferous hypogynous disc, although they differ in the number of floral parts and the radial pentameric symmetry is completely original. Based on molecular and morphological data, the APW (Angiosperm Phylogeny Website) considers that they form part of the order
Proteales, one of four families that includes the
Proteaceae, the
Nelumbonaceae, and the
Platanaceae (cf.
AP-website).
The family consists of three
genera, together about 160 species of woody plants. The genus Sabia often are lianas, while those in the genera Meliosma and Ophiocaryon are trees and shrubs; the latter two are sometimes treated in a separate family Meliosmaceae.
Taxa included
The family includes three genera that can be distinguished as follows:
Climbers or vines. 5 equal stamens. Flowers normally in axillary panicles that are pauciflorous or reduced to one flower.
Trees. 2 stamens, opposed to internal petals, the other 3 reduced to squamiform staminodes. Flowers normally in terminal or axillary panicles, multifloral.
Subequal petals. Staminodes without lateral cavities. Carpels with free styles.
^Messian to Zanclean vegetation and climate of Northern and Central Italy by Adele Bertini & Edoardo Martinetto, Bollettino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana, 47 (2), 2008, 105-121. Modena, 11 lugio 2008.
^Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards).
Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 12, July 2012 [and more or less continuously updated since].
Proteales. Accessed online: 9 June 2013.
Kubitzki, K. (2007). "Sabiaceae". Kubitzki, K. (Editor). The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. IX. Flowering Plants - Eudicots. Springer-Verlag: Berlín.
ISBN978-3-540-32214-6.