Annonaceae

The Annonaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest family in the Magnoliales. Several genera produce edible fruit, most notably Annona, Anonidium, Asimina, Rollinia, and Uvaria.Its type genus is Annona. The family is concentrated in the tropics, with few species found in temperate regions. About 900 species are Neotropical, 450 are Afrotropical, and the remaining are Indomalayan. The species are mostly tropical, some are mid-latitude, deciduous or evergreen trees and shrubs, with some lianas, with aromatic bark, leaves, and flowers. Monophyly and inter-familial systematics have been well supported for Annonaceae by a combination of morphological and molecular evidence. The APG II system places Annonaceae as most closely related to the small Magnoliid family Eupomatiaceae. In a phylogeny-based reclassification of the family four subfamilies are recognised: Anaxagoreoideae (including just Anaxagorea), Ambavioideae, Annonoideae, and Malmeoideae. A number of the larger genera, including Guatteria, with its 177 species, Annona, and Xylopia belong to Annonoideae. Together, Annonoideae and Malmeoideae comprise the majority of the species and each are further subdivided into a number of tribes. The subfamilial and tribal classification is followed in World Annonaceae which presents an overview of all Annonaceae genera and taxonomic, distribution and photographic information for a large number of species. Keys for the identification of Annonaceae genera (separately for Neotropical, African/Madagascan, and Asian/Australian taxa) are presented in. For a concise bibliographic overview of the taxonomic literature (1900 to 2012) see. Both plastid DNA markers and morphological characters provide evidence that Anaxagorea is the sister clade to the rest of the family. This may confirm the hypothesis that morphological traits shared between Anaxagorea and other Magnoliales species (such as 2-ranked phyllotaxis, monosulcate pollen, and laminate stamens) represent ancestral characters, while derived characters observed in other genera have evolved independently multiple times.The oldest fossil evidence of Annonaceae is described as the genus Futabanthus, from the late Cretaceous of Japan, which represents a minimum age of c. 89 Mya for the most recent common ancestor (crown group) of the family. The ages of Annonaceae clades inferred using fossil evidence and molecular clock based dating techniques suggests that the pantropical distribution of the family originated subsequent to the break up of the Gondwanan supercontinent, as the result of a combination of geodispersal tracking the expansion of the boreotropical flora during the Eocene and more recent long distance dispersal events. Taxonomy based on the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. The large, edible, pulpy fruits of some members typically called anona by Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking people of the family's Neotropical range, include species of Annona: custard apple (A. reticulata), cherimoya (A. cherimola), soursop/guanábana/graviola (A. muricata), sweetsop (A. squamosa), ilama (A. diversifolia), soncoya (A. purpurea), atemoya (a cross between A. cherimola and A. squamosa); and biriba (Rollinia deliciosa, which may require reclassification under Annona.). The names of many of those fruits are sometimes used interchangeably. Recently, consumption of the neotropical annonaceous plant Annona muricata (soursop, graviola, guanabana) has been strongly associated as a causal agent in 'atypical Parkinsonism'. The causative agent, annonacin, is present in many of the Annonaceae. It is thought to be responsible for up to 70% of Parkinsonian conditions in Guadeloupe. Exposure is typically through traditional food and natural medicines.