PlantaeDB Logo
Login Sign-up

Genus Putterlickia in Family Celastraceae

In botanical taxonomy, a genus (plural genera) is a rank used to group closely related species within a family. In the hierarchy, genus sits below family and above species.

Genera are defined by shared morphological, anatomical, and genetic characteristics (for example, features of flowers, fruits, seeds, or leaves) that indicate a close evolutionary relationship among the species they contain.

Each genus can include one or more species. Examples include Rosa (roses) and Solanum (nightshades, including tomato and eggplant).

Do you wish to read more about plant taxonomy? Click here!

Genus Description

Suggest a correction!

Putterlickia (family Celastraceae, tribe Hippocratea) is a twining, woody genus with about seven species distributed in southeastern tropical to southern Africa, from Kenya, Tanzania, and Malawi to Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa, typically occurring in forest edges, woodland, and coastal thickets from sea level to moderate elevations (B. J. & L. G., 1999; WFO, 2024). The type species is P. africana (Sim) Loes. (POWO, 2024). The genus is defined by evergreen, opposite or subopposite leaves with entire margins and tiny, caducous stipules, lianescent habits often with striate young stems, paniculate to thyrsoid inflorescences with small, pentamerous, greenish to yellowish flowers, a generally superior ovary with axile placentation, and three-winged or three-keeled schizocarpic fruits that split into winged mericarps with membranous, laterally expanded seed appendages, features diagnostic of the Hippocratea alliance (B. J. & L. G., 1999). Centers of diversity lie in the coastal and lowland forests of Mozambique and eastern South Africa, with a few regional endemics; species occur in a range of habitats from coastal scrub to montane woodland, underscoring a preference for warm, seasonally dry to moist woodlands and forest margins (B. J. & L. G., 1999). Pollination and dispersal have not been well documented; its wind-dispersed samaras indicate likely anemochory, and the base chromosome number remains uncertain in current literature. Taxonomically, the genus is treated as distinct from Hippocratea in modern African accounts, although circumscription has been fluid historically and synonymy under Hippocratea has been proposed by some earlier authors; most recent treatments and checklists recognize Putterlickia as a separate lineage within the tribe (B. J. & L. G., 1999; WFO, 2024; Smith et al., 2022). Human relevance is modest: several species are occasionally cultivated as ornamental climbers, while others remain of limited economic importance; no species are widely used as timber or crops and none are significant invasive weeds in current literature (POWO, 2024). Conservation status is incompletely assessed, and targeted floristic and phylogenetic work is still needed to resolve species limits and biogeographic patterns; ongoing habitat loss in coastal and lowland forests remains a potential concern, yet many taxa occur in relatively protected corridors (B. J. & L. G., 1999).

Pick a Species to see its components: