Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- List of symbols and abbreviations
- 1 Species associations
- 2 Vegetation in West Africa
- 3 Annonaceae – soursop family
- 4 Amaranthaceae – amaranth family
- 5 Cucurbitaceae – gourd family
- 6 Ochnaceae – ironwood family
- 7 Combretaceae – afara family
- 8 Guttiferae (Clusiaceae) – butter tree family
- 9 Sterculiaceae – cocoa family
- 10 Bombacaceae – silk cotton family
- 11 Malvaceae – cotton family
- 12 Euphorbiaceae – cassava family
- 13 Caesalpiniaceae – pride of Barbados family
- 14 Mimosaceae – Acacia family
- 15 Papilionaceae – cowpea family
- 16 Ulmaceae – afefe family
- 17 Moraceae – mulberry family
- 18 Meliaceae – mahogany family
- 19 Sapindaceae – akee apple family
- 20 Anacardiaceae – cashew nut family
- 21 Sapotaceae – sheabutternut family
- 22 Apocynaceae – frangipani family
- 23 Asclepiadaceae – blood flower or milkweed family
- 24 Rubiaceae – abura family
- 25 Compositae (Asteraceae) – Tridax family
- 26 Solanaceae – tomato family
- 27 Convolvulaceae – sweet potato family
- 28 Bignoniaceae – jacaranda family
- 29 Acanthaceae – Thunbergia family
- 30 Verbenaceae – teak family
- 31 Labiatae (Lamiaceae) – Hausa potato family
- 32 Commelinaceae – day flower family
- 33 Zingiberaceae – ginger family
- 34 Marantaceae – (West Indian) arrowroot family
- 35 Liliaceae – lily family
- 36 Araceae – cocoyam family
- 37 Palmae (Arecaceae) – palm family
- 38 Orchidaceae – orchid family
- 39 Cyperaceae – sedge family
- 40 Gramineae (Poaceae) – grass family
- General bibliography
- Index of family, generic and common names
17 - Moraceae – mulberry family
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- List of symbols and abbreviations
- 1 Species associations
- 2 Vegetation in West Africa
- 3 Annonaceae – soursop family
- 4 Amaranthaceae – amaranth family
- 5 Cucurbitaceae – gourd family
- 6 Ochnaceae – ironwood family
- 7 Combretaceae – afara family
- 8 Guttiferae (Clusiaceae) – butter tree family
- 9 Sterculiaceae – cocoa family
- 10 Bombacaceae – silk cotton family
- 11 Malvaceae – cotton family
- 12 Euphorbiaceae – cassava family
- 13 Caesalpiniaceae – pride of Barbados family
- 14 Mimosaceae – Acacia family
- 15 Papilionaceae – cowpea family
- 16 Ulmaceae – afefe family
- 17 Moraceae – mulberry family
- 18 Meliaceae – mahogany family
- 19 Sapindaceae – akee apple family
- 20 Anacardiaceae – cashew nut family
- 21 Sapotaceae – sheabutternut family
- 22 Apocynaceae – frangipani family
- 23 Asclepiadaceae – blood flower or milkweed family
- 24 Rubiaceae – abura family
- 25 Compositae (Asteraceae) – Tridax family
- 26 Solanaceae – tomato family
- 27 Convolvulaceae – sweet potato family
- 28 Bignoniaceae – jacaranda family
- 29 Acanthaceae – Thunbergia family
- 30 Verbenaceae – teak family
- 31 Labiatae (Lamiaceae) – Hausa potato family
- 32 Commelinaceae – day flower family
- 33 Zingiberaceae – ginger family
- 34 Marantaceae – (West Indian) arrowroot family
- 35 Liliaceae – lily family
- 36 Araceae – cocoyam family
- 37 Palmae (Arecaceae) – palm family
- 38 Orchidaceae – orchid family
- 39 Cyperaceae – sedge family
- 40 Gramineae (Poaceae) – grass family
- General bibliography
- Index of family, generic and common names
Summary
A family of woody plants in all the warmer parts of the world, represented in West Africa by trees, some shrubs and shrubby epiphytes, and a few stranglers.
Members of the family may be recognised by their latex and alternate stipulate leaves. The leaves may be pinnately veined, relatively small, and conduplicate in the bud, when the stipules are also small (but see Ficus carica and Artocarpus heterophyllus) or the stipules may be intrapetiolar, large and hoodlike, leaving circular scars on the stem. The leaves are then rolled (supervolute) in the bud (Ficus etc.) or pleated (plicate) in the bud and later large and digitately divided or compound (Artocarpus communis (now A. altilis), Musanga). The leaves are usually leathery or rough. The flowers are small, ♂ or ♀, apetalous and often four-part, closely packed in cymose inflorescences, the inflorescence axis (the receptacle, cf. Euphorbia) often enlarged. It may be shaped like a spike, a disc or a bag. The fruit is false, sometimes a syncarp or a syconium.
The boundary between the Moraceae and the Urticaceae rests on rather few characters, and Musanga and Myrianthus are now generally considered to be part of the latter family as a consequence of their possession of clear (not milky) sap, which turns black, basal ovules, small achenes and mineral bodies (cystoliths) in the epidermal cells. In conformity with the second edition of the Flora of West tropical Africa, however, the two genera are here retained in the Moraceae.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Flowering Plants in West Africa , pp. 164 - 170Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988