History and Taxonomy: Though perhaps earliest recognized as a natural assemblage by Michel Adanson, A. L. de Jussieu published a fleshed-out version of his own thoughts concerning Ericads in his 1789 Genera Plantarum…, actually establishing two groups, which he called natural orders. Jussieu defined one group based on Rhododendron and Kalmia (including the genus Itea), the other comprising Erica, Vaccinium, Arbutus, Gaulthera, etc. (including Cyrilla and Clethra). This second group he designated as Ericæ, which became the basis for the family name Ericaceae.
Checking POWO (Kew’s Plants of the World On-Line) we learn first publication of the group is actually credited to Jean-François Durande, who, being among the earliest botanists to utilize de Jussieu’s classification system, also beat Jussieu to the punch in print with his 1781-82 botanical textbook Notions élémentaires de botanique. There Durante listed the natural order (family) Ericæ as including those Ericads with urceolate corollas; while placing other genera (Rhododendron, Rhodora, Kalmia, even Clethra) in the segregate family Kalmiæ. Today we aggregate both groups in the single family, conserving the name Ericaceae over alternatives.
Ericaceae, as circumscribed today, is among the larger natural groups of flowering plants, comprising more than 4,000 species in over 120 genera, set into 9 subfamilies (Angiosperm Phylogeny Website). Of the 16 genera recognized in Flora of Florida, 14 are reported from the Apalachicola region (Agarista, Ceratiola, Chimaphila, Epigaea, Eubotrys, Gaylussacia, Kalmia, Leucothoe, Lyonia, Monotropa, Oxydendrum, Pieris, Rhododendron, and Vaccinium), comprising 29 species. Based on current classification, these genera fall into 4 of the 9 subfamilies:
- Pyroloideae – Chimaphila
- Monotropoideae – Monotropa
- Ericoideae – Ceratiola, Epigaea, Kalmia, and Rhododendron
- Vaccinioideae – Agarista, Eubotrys, Gaylussacia, Leucothhoe, Lyonia, Oxydendrum, Pieris, and Vaccinium.
Two other genera represented in the Florida flora but not reported from the Apalachicola area are Bejaria (Ericoideae) and Monotropsis (Monotropoideae)
Given the nearly worldwide distribution and numbers of species, Ericaceae range from herbaceous to woody shrubs, trees and even vining and epiphytic forms. Most are evergreen, but deciduous plants are well-represented in temperate climates. Leaves are simple and estipulate (lacking stipules). The basic floral plan is 5, with sepals and petals ranging from 2-7. Flowers are typically perfect, with free stamens, often numbering 10, but ranging from 2-14 with poricidal or slit-like dehiscence. Ovaries may be superior or inferior, those in our Flora that are superior typically maturing as woody capsules, while the inferior fruit of Vaccinium (Blueberry) and Gaylussacia (Huckleberry) are fleshy.
In these many regards, Ceratiola is very different, with unisexual 2-merous flowers (reported as dioecious) and fleshy 2-seeded superior fruit. Bejaria (Tarflower), present in the Florida peninsula but not yet reported for the Apalachicola Flora is another plant that from descriptions (the flowers are 7-merous) doesn’t immediately strike me as Ericaceous. Contemporary systematists include both plants in Ericoideae, making that subfamily seem something of a catchall for outliers.
Other plants originally included have, over time, been pulled out. Cyrilla and Cliftonia (described in 1807) were segregated to the Cyrillaceae by John Lindley in his 1846 compendium, The Vegetable Kingdom, leaving Clethra as Ericaceae. Just a few years later, in an 1851 publication (Studien über die natürliche Klasse Bicornes Linné), Johann Friedrich Klotszch established Clethraceae. Today, these small, families remain segregate, though still classified in Order Ericales, along with Theaceae (Camellias), Sarraceniaceae (Pitcher Plants), Ebenaceae (Persimmons), Polemoniaceae (Phloxes), Primulaceae (Loosestrife) , Sapotaceae (Sapote), Styracaceae (Snowbell), and others. Currently, botanists include the Ericales as a branch of the Asterid Clade,
Itea, which you’ll also find in our local flora, is now classified as a small family in the Saxifragales, currently considered part of the Rosid clade.
Significance: Ericaceae and allies are of considerable presence in our Flora, abundant as evergreen understory woody shrubs to small trees. With their fleshy fruit, Vaccinium (including Gaylussacia) must be significant food sources for birds and small animals. Across the nation, selections of Blueberries have become an important commercial crop, especially in colder zones. Though not a plant you’d encounter in our region, the related bog-shrub, Cranberry (Vaccinum oxycoccus, or alternatively Oxycoccus palustris) reminds us Ericaceae frequent acid soils and many flourish in wet soils.
Genera
Pieris phillyreifolia – an Unchained Melody
Examine Cyrilla, Cliftonia, Clethra, and Itea in An Array of Shrubs
PLAYERS in the history of Apalachicola Ericaceae:
John Beckner – (1932- 22 August 2011) a Florida botanist, teacher, researcher, and writer, who occupied positions at several institutions, retiring as Curator of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens herbariuim. Co-authored chapter in Flora of Florida on history of plant collection.
Augustin Pyramus De Condolle (4 February 1778 – 9 September 1841) and Alphonse Pyramus De Condolle (28 October 1806 – 4 April 1893) – Father and Son who saw through publication of Prodromus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodromus_Systematis_Naturalis_Regni_Vegetabilis Prodromus, intended as a summary treatment of all known seed plants, evesntually covered the Dicots. Augustin, the father, oversaw vol 1-7, publication beginning in 1824, while Alphonse completed the publication, Vol 17, as editor, working with numerous authors, in 1873.
David Don (21 December 1789-15 December 1841) Published his synopsis of Ericaceae in 1834, including description of the genus Pieris. HIs family treatment was incorporated in De Candolle’s Ericaceae, Prodromus, v7. Abbreviation: D. Don
Thomas Drummond – (c1790-1835), Scottish. Collected specimens (near Apalachicola in 1835) from which W. J. Hooker would describe Climbing Fetterbush, Andromeda phillyreifolia in 1837. https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/drummond-thomas
August Heinrich Rudolf Grisebach – (17 April 1814 – 9 May 1879). Published a catalog of plants collected by Wright in Cuba in 1866, including original species description of Pieris cubensis, considered the nearest relative to our native Pieris phillyreifolia. Abbreviated Griseb.
Bruce E. Hansen – Contemporary botanist, Curator Emeritus USF Herbarium, Co-author Flora of Florida.
William Jackson Hooker – (6 July 1785 – 12 August 1865) Very productive and connected botanist who worked across many plant families. At one moment in 1837, editor of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, Annals of Botany, and well as author of his own serialized Icones Plantarum, in which he described the plant we know today as Pieris phillyreifollia (Hooker) DC. In 1841, he became the first Director of Kew Gardens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jackson_Hooker
Walter S. Judd – Contemporary Botanist – Works on Ericaceae, including comments on classification and monograph of Pieris.
Paul C. Lemon & Jean M. Voegli – studied biology and ecology of Pieris phillyreifolia
John Lyon – (1765-1814) Epynonym for the Ericaceous genus Lyonia, described by Thomas Nuttall in 1818. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lyon_(botanist)
Thomas Nuttall (5 January 1786 – 10 December 1859) English botanist, on arriving in the US for his first visit in 1808, Nuttall soon met Philadelphia’s Benjamin Smith Barton, who became a strong ally. A second visit to the US in 1815, led to his 1818 publication of The Genera of North American Plants, 2 Vol., in Vol 1 of which he described the genus Lyonia. His many years of travels and assignments included work at Harvard’s gardens and the Philadelphia Academy. He completed his North America Sylva in 1841, after which he returned to England , retiring from botany with an inheritance from an Uncle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nuttall
John K. Small – Flora of the Southeast, as well as Shrubs of Florida and Trees of Florida. Described the genus Ampelothamnus to include the plant considered Pieris phillyreifolia today
John Torrey – Described a plant collected by Alfonso Wood as Andromeda croomia, published in the 1861 edition of Wood’s Class-Book of Botany, but now recognized as a synonym of Pieris phillyreifolia.
Carroll E. Wood, Jr. Authored serialized treatments of a Generic Flora of the Southeast, including Ericaceae
Richard P. Wunderlin – Contemporary botanist, Prof Emeritus University South Florida, Founder of ISB