family with about 50 genera and 2500 species trees or shrubs, with aromatic bark and foliage, rarely a parasitic vine contains aetherical oils in idioblasts
Local name
Laurel family
Distribution
subtropics, tropics, especially South-East Asia and Brazil, likes tropical wet forests
Floral characters
inflorescences in cymes, false umbels, heads, spikes, panicles or occasionally solitary; flowers bisexual or unisexual; perianth usually in 2 whorls of (2-) 3 petals; symmetry is radial, tepals usually 6, distinct, only sometimes connate, stamens usually 2-12, filaments often with pairs of basal-lateral nectar-or-odor-producing appendages usually small, pale green, white or yellow
Floral formula
* P3+3 A9 G1
Leaf characters
mostly alternate and spiral, occasionaly opposite, never two-ranked, simple, rarely lobed, entire, veins clearly visible
Stipules
absent
Fruit characters
mostly berries or drupes, e.g. Persea americana Mill.; one seed with endosperm, and large cotyledons
Cinnamomum verum (cinnamon), C. camphora (camphor) , Sassafras albidum (sassafras), Persea americana (avocado); Beilschmiedia, Ocotea, Litsea and some other genera contain species used for timber
Chemical characters
Benzylisochinolin-Alcaloids, Polyphenol, Catechin-tannines, Furanosesquiterpenes and Sequiterpenlactones (Germacranolides, Elemanolides, Eudesmanolides, Guajanolides), Phenylpropanes, Lignanes and Neolignanes
Distribution maps
(online von http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/ . Dort zitiert wie unter jedem Diagramm vermerkt):
Lauraceae
map: from Heywood 1978; modified as in Richter 1981; Fl. N. Am. III 1997; FloraBase 2005; Cassytha, The Parasitic Plant Collection
