Abstract
Over the years, I have received many specimens of Humiriaceae mistaken for Chrysobalanaceae because there is a superficial resemblance of some sterile and fruiting material. There are many differences in both the flowers and the fruits of these two families. They both belong to the order Malpighiales, but they are not very closely related. Receiving these specimens of Humiriaceae by mistake often led to my identifying the specimens and as a result gradually accumulating information and interest in the Humiriaceae. The aim here is to put together that information and a lot more from recent collections to supplement the last monograph of the family by Cuatrecasas (1961). Cuatrecasas cited the 889 herbarium specimens that he studied. This revision is now based on 5397 specimens, an increase of 4508, indicating how much collecting has taken place in the Neotropics over the past 60 years. It is encouraging that 70% of the additional collections were made by resident Latin American collectors. This indicates the vast increase in local collecting efforts, especially in Brazil and Colombia.
You have full access to this open access chapter, Download chapter PDF
Over the years, I have received many specimens of Humiriaceae mistaken for Chrysobalanaceae because there is a superficial resemblance of some sterile and fruiting material. There are many differences in both the flowers and the fruits of these two families. They both belong to the order Malpighiales, but they are not very closely related. Receiving these specimens of Humiriaceae by mistake often led to my identifying the specimens and as a result gradually accumulating information and interest in the Humiriaceae. The aim here is to put together that information and a lot more from recent collections to supplement the last monograph of the family by Cuatrecasas (1961). Cuatrecasas cited the 889 herbarium specimens that he studied. This revision is now based on 5397 specimens, an increase of 4508, indicating how much collecting has taken place in the Neotropics over the past 60 years. It is encouraging that 70% of the additional collections were made by resident Latin American collectors. This indicates the vast increase in local collecting efforts, especially in Brazil and Colombia.
Reference
Cuatrecasas, J. 1961. A taxonomic revision of the Humiriaceae. Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 35, 2: 25–214.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Prance, G.T. (2021). Introduction. In: Humiriaceae. Flora Neotropica, vol 123. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82359-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82359-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-82358-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-82359-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)