English: Lopseed family.
Botany:
Lamiales; 11 genera, 190 species;
Region: worldwide, western North America, Australia.
Habitats: diverse; deserts, river banks, mountains.
Genera: 13; 210 species.
Subfamilies and GeneraPhrymaceae: 13 genera: Berendtiella, Diplacus, Elacholoma, Erythranthe, Glossostigma, Hemichaena, Leucocarpus, Microcarpeae, Mimetanthe, Mimulus, Peplidium, Phryma, Thyridia, Uvedalia.
Linderniaceae: Amphiolanthus, Artanema, Bampsia, Bonnaya, Chamaegigas, Craterostigma, Crepidorhopalon, Hartliella, Hemiarrhena, Ilysanthes, Legazpia, Lindernia, Linderniella, Picria, Pierranthus, Schizotorenia, Scolophyllum, Stemodiopsis, Torenia, Vandellia.
Paulowniaceae: Brandisia, Paulownia, Shiuyinghua, Wightia.
TaxonomyThe family
Phrymaceae was established in 1847 by Johannes Conrad Schauer. Until 2002,
Phrymaceae had been monotypic with
Phryma leptostachya as its only species. Cronquist had it placed in
Verbenaceae, some others in
Lamiaceae.
Research on phylogenetic relationships revealed that several genera, traditionally included in
Scrophulariaceae, were actually more closely related to Phryma than to Scrophularia. In 2004 these genera, Mimulus and its relatives Dodartia, Mazus, Lancea, Bythophyton, Encopella, Hemianthus, Micranthemum, Bryodes, Dintera, Psammetes, and Mimulicalyx became part of an expanded
Phrymaceae. Mazus and Lancea were included in
Phrymaceae for a short time before further studies indicated that they, along with Dodartia should be segregated as a new family, Mazaceae.
The monotypic genera Bythophyton and Encopella might properly belong to
Plantaginaceae tribe Gratioliae.
Hemianthus is so similar to Micranthemum that its recognition as a separate genus is doubtful.
Micranthemum and Bryodes have been shown to be members of
Linderniaceae.
The African monotypic genera Dintera and Psammetes are little known and their affinities remain obscure. Mimulicalyx has 2 species, both endemic to China. Their familial placement remains uncertain.
Bythophyton, Encopella, Dintera, Psammetes, and Mimulicalyx might be considered as possible members of
Phrymaceae since they have not been unequivocally placed elsewhere
In older classifications Eunanus, Tricholoma, and Berendtiella were not accepted as they are in some recent works. Eunanus is reduced to a section in Diplacus. Tricholoma is subsumed within Glossostigma.
Plant theoryIn the
Plant theory Verbenales is split off from
Lamiales.
Phrymaceae is in
Subphase 6 in
Lamiales. Paulowniaceae is included in
Phrymaceae,
Subphase 6.
BotanyAnnual or perennial herbs, a few subshrubs; some aquatic or semiaquatic.
Leaves: opposite, sometimes glandular-punctate.
Flowers: hypogynous; usually in racemes, rarely solitary or in axillary clusters of 2 or 3.
Calyx: tubular, toothed, usually ribbed below teeth.
Corolla: zygomorphic, or rarely, sub-actinomorphic; 5-lobed, rarely 3 or 4 lobes.
Stamens: 4, didynamous, or rarely 2; filaments inserted on corolla tube.
Carpels: 2, bearing many ovules; or rarely, carpel 1 with a single ovule; stigmas with two lamellas, with sensitive inner surfaces, closing together on contact with a pollinator.
Stigmas: 2-lobed, sensitive except in
Elacholoma hornii which has a linear stigma.
Fruit: loculicidal, septicidal capsule, rarely a schizocarp or berry; borne in a persistent calyx.
Seeds: small; many, 1 in Phryma.