Araliaceae

The Araliaceae is a family made of 52 genera and 700 species of flowering plants including perennial herbs, trees, vines and succulents. The family has large, usually alternate leaves, five-petaled flowers arranged in clusters, and berries. Some genera are used as foliage plants, such as Hedera (ivies). The Araliaceae are merged into the closely related Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) in some taxonomic treatments. The family from tropical area origin is present in cooler climates, too. They are found in the Americas, Eurasia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Pacific islands. Araliaceae bear essential oils, or without essential oils can be resinous and heterophyllous. It presents many shapes, includes some trees and ivies as the angelica tree (devil's walking-stick, Aralia spinosa), the devil's club (Oplopanax horridus), Hedera spp., including Hedera helix and herbs as ginseng Panax spp., a native of Korea and used as medical herb. Leaves are simple or compound, sometimes lauroid (resembling Laurus) or peltate, or not peltate; when compound, they are ternate, pinnate, or palmate. The systematics of the Araliaceae are currently under study, and taxonomic changes and novelties are to be expected. Endemic Araliaceae are found in the pluvial montane forest, very humid montane, and humid lowland river forest regions. They are present, too, in laurel forest, cloud forest, and warm, humid habitats.The family is closely related to the Apiaceae and Pittosporaceae, and the boundaries between these families and other members of Apiales are still uncertain. Some recent systems included Araliaceae in an expanded Apiaceae, but this has not been widely followed. Molecular phylogenies suggest at least some of the genera traditionally included in Apiaceae as subfamily Hydrocotyloideae appear to be more closely related to Araliaceae, and the inclusion of Hydrocotyle and Trachymene in Araliaceae has been recommended. The generic level classification of the Araliaceae has been unstable; in particular, numerous genera have been synonymized under Schefflera. Recent molecular phylogenies have shown this large pantropical genus is polyphyletic and some believe it should be divided again into several genera, though these would probably not correspond with the previously recognized genera. List of foliage plant diseases (Araliaceae)