Salicaceae facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Salicaceae |
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| Salix alba | |
Scientific classification  |
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Malpighiales |
| Family: | Salicaceae Mirb. |
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The Salicaceae is a group of plants often called the willow family. It includes many well-known flowering plants like willows, poplars, aspens, and cottonwoods. Scientists used to think this family was smaller, but new genetic studies have shown it's much bigger. Now, the Salicaceae family has 56 different groups of plants (called genera) and about 1220 different kinds of plants (called species). It even includes plants that were once in other families, like the Scyphostegiaceae and many from the Flacourtiaceae family.
What is the Willow Family?
In an older way of classifying plants, called the Cronquist system, the Salicaceae family was in its own special group called Salicales. Back then, it only had three main plant groups: Salix (willows), Populus (poplars), and Chosenia.
Scientists now know that the willow family is closely related to other plant families like the Violaceae (violet family) and Passifloraceae (passion flower family). Because of this, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG), which is a group of scientists who study plant relationships, has placed the Salicaceae family into a larger group called the order Malpighiales.
Key Features of Salicaceae Plants
Plants in the willow family are usually trees or shrubs. They have simple leaves, which means each leaf is a single blade, not divided into smaller leaflets. These leaves are arranged alternately along the stem, meaning they don't grow directly opposite each other.
If these plants live in places with changing seasons, they usually lose their leaves in the fall (they are deciduous). Most plants in this family have leaves with jagged or toothed edges. These teeth are special and are called "salicoid teeth." A salicoid tooth has a vein that goes into the tooth, gets wider, and ends near the tip. Close to the tip, there are also small, round, sticky bumps called setae.
The flowers of plants in the willow family are often small and not very noticeable. All of them have ovaries that are either above or partly above the other flower parts. Their seeds grow in a specific way called parietal placentation, where the seeds are attached to the inner walls of the ovary.
Images for kids
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This picture shows a typical salicoid tooth. The yellow part is the leaf vein getting wider, and the small dot is the glandular seta.
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Here you can see a leaf from a Populus trichocarpa with a salicoid tooth. The brownish-yellow area near the tooth is the glandular seta.
See also
In Spanish: Salicáceas para niños
