Lauraceae
The Lauraceae (Laural family) are in the focus of our research. Why?
- Lauraceae are among the 12 most frequent tree families in nearly all moist tropical and subtropical forests worldwide.
- An important vegetation type of subtropical and tropical montane regions, the laurel forest, has been named after them.
- Fruits of Lauraceae are the staple food of many birds, from the Resplendent Quetzal in Central America to the Cassowary in Australia.
- Several species are important crop plants, e.g., the avocado (Persea americana) and cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum).
The backbone of the phylogeny of the Lauraceae has been elucidated in recent years. This is a diagram (cladogram) showing the most important evolutionary lineages:
Main evolutionary lineages in Lauraceae, based on Rohwer (2000), Chanderbali et al. (2001), Rohwer & Rudolph (2005) and Song et al. (2017).
Considerable progress has been made within the main evolutionary lineages as well, in our working group and in others. Nevertheless, several problems remain to be solved. Here you find informationen on the evolutionary lineages shown above:
- Hypodaphnis and the Cryptocarya group
- Cassytha, Neocinnamomum and Caryodaphnopsis
- Mezilaurus group
- Persea group
- Cinnamomeae
- Laureae
Hundreds of photos, drawings of floral details and litarature citations can be found on the pages of the Lauraceae Working Group.