The Rutaceae () is a family, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.
Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents. They range in form and size from herbs to shrubs and large trees.
The most economically important genus in the family is Citrus, which includes the orange (C. × sinensis), lemon (C. × limon), grapefruit (C. × paradisi), and lime (various). Boronia is a large Australian genus, some members of which are plants with highly fragrant flowers and are used in commercial oil production. Other large genera include Zanthoxylum, several species of which are cultivated for Sichuan pepper, Melicope, and Agathosma. The family Rutaceae contains about 160 genera.
Characteristics
Members of the Rutaceae are mainly woody plants, with a few herbs. They give off a citrus smell when crushed or their bark is slashed. Many of them have compound leaves; some have thorns; none have stipules. There are clear (pellucid) glands appearing as dots or pits on leaves, flowers, and fruits. The flowers are bisexual (containing both male and female parts), have flower parts in fives, and are arranged in inflorescences such as cymes or panicles. The fruits are often hesperidiums as in Citrus, capsules as in Raputiarana, or drupes as in Acronychia; many of these have glands in the outer rind.
Evolution
The Rutaceae was described by the French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in his 1789 book Genera Plantarum. "Rutaceae" remains the name in use (nomen conservandum) for the family as defined in the International Plant Names Index. The type genus is Ruta.
In 1896, Engler published a division of the family Rutaceae into seven subfamilies. One, Rhabdodendroideae, is no longer considered to belong to the Rutaceae, being treated as the segregate family Rhabdodendraceae, containing only the genus Rhabdodendron. Two monogeneric subfamilies, Dictyolomatoideae and...
