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▪ plant order
large order of flowering plants that includes 40 families, more than 700 genera, and almost 16,000 species. Many of the families are tropical and poorly known, but well-known members of the order include Salicaceae ( willow family), Violaceae (violet (Viola) family), Passifloraceae ( passion-flower family), Euphorbiaceae ( spurge or croton family), Rhizophoraceae ( mangrove family), and Erythroxylaceae ( coca family).
It used to be said of the former order Violales (in the Cronquist botanical system), which is now part of Malpighiales, that hardly any list of characters defined it. The same is clearly true of this more broadly delimited order under the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II (APG II) botanical classification system (see angiosperm). However, some characters are quite common: the leaves of Malpighiales are often toothed and stipulate, and their basic floral construction is that common to basal eudicots—with sepals, petals, and often 10 stamens all free, a nectary, and superior ovaries with three to five fused carpels. In addition, the seeds have usually at most little endosperm, and the seed coat has a fibrous layer.
Malpighiales is a member of the Rosids I group of the core eudicots, perhaps most closely related to Oxalidales. In the past the families of Malpighiales were placed in a variety of orders, and many other families now placed in other Rosid orders were once thought to be related to these families. Included here are Flacourtiaceae, although the family as such is no longer recognized. It has been broken up into several parts, with most of its genera reassigned to Salicaceae and Achariaceae. Malpighiales as a clade has quite strong molecular support and is morphologically fairly coherent, even if not very distinctive. The families are generally organized into nine main groups, with a large number of unassigned families, as listed here:
● Malpighiaceae and Elatinaceae
● Salicaceae, Violaceae, Passifloraceae, Achariaceae, Turneraceae, Malesherbiaceae, Lacistemataceae, and Goupiaceae
● Erythroxylaceae and Rhizophoraceae
● Clusiaceae, Bonnetiaceae, Podostemaceae, and Hypericaceae
● Ochnaceae, Medusagynaceae, and Quiinaceae
● Chrysobalanaceae, Dichapetalaceae, Trigoniaceae, Balanopaceae, and Euphroniaceae
● Putranjivaceae and Lophopyxidaceae
● Euphorbiaceae, Peraceae, and Rafflesiaceae
● Phyllanthaceae and Picrodendraceae
● Unassigned families: Caryocaraceae, Ctenolophonaceae, Humiriaceae, Linaceae, Peridiscaceae, Irvingiaceae, Pandaceae, Ixonanthaceae, and Centroplacaceae.
Malpighiaceae and Elatinaceae
Malpighiaceae contains 68 genera and 1,250 species of lianas (liana) to trees, which are found throughout the tropics, although especially in the Neotropics, and into the subtropics. Byrsonima (150 species), Malpighia (130 species), Heteropterys (120 species), Stigmaphyllon (100 species), Banisteriopsis (90 species), Bunchosia (55 species), Mascagnia (50 species), and Malpighia (40 species) are all restricted to the New World. Acridocarpus (30 species), mostly from Africa, is the largest genus in the Old World. Members of Malpighiaceae usually have opposite leaves that lack teeth. The hairs are single-celled and T-shaped, and there are often conspicuous glands on the leaf or petiole. The characteristic flowers have four or five sepals, often with large paired glands on their backs; the petals are strongly narrowed and stalked at the base and are crumpled in bud; and there are three carpels, each with a single ovule. There is no nectary, and pollination is effected by bees, which remove waxes from the sepal glands. The pollinating bees are absent in the Old World, and members of Malpighiaceae there may lack sepal glands or may secrete nectar. The sepals and filaments often persist at the base of the fruit, which is typically dry and with a variable number of wings.
Elatinaceae contains 2 genera and 35 species of herbs to subshrubs, which are native to moist or wet habitats worldwide, although most are tropical or subtropical. Bergia (25 species) and Elatine (10 species) are especially widespread genera. Members of Elatinaceae have opposite, more or less toothed leaves with small paired thin and brownish stipules. They have very small flowers. Elatinaceae species are often important economically as weeds in rice fields and irrigation ditches, where they also play an important ecological role in the prevention of soil erosion.
The Salicaceae group
Salicaceae, Violaceae, Achariaceae, Malesherbiaceae, Turneraceae, Passifloraceae, and Lacistemataceae form a related group. Glands on the leaves are common; there are often three carpels; ovules are borne on the walls of the ovary; and the reserve endosperm in the seeds is persistent and oily.
Salicaceae, or the willow family, contains 55 genera and more than 1,000 species of deciduous or evergreen shrubs and trees. The family is most common in the tropics and grows worldwide, except for New Zealand, and only a few species are found in Australia. Salix (willows; 450 species) is notorious for interspecific hybridization; with Populus (poplars (poplar); 35 species) it is the main temperate genus of the family. Casearia (180 species), Homalium (180 species), and Xylosma (85 species) are other large genera.
Salicaceae used to include only Salix and Populus, although it was clear that these genera shared properties with other genera (particularly members of Flacourtiaceae), such as similar anatomy, production of phenolic-type compounds (e.g., salicin), and even in the fungi that grew on them. Molecular work, amply confirmed by the kinds of characters just mentioned, led to much of the old family Flacourtiaceae being included in a much-expanded Salicaceae. The expanded family also includes Scyphostegia, a genus whose placement previously was controversial; it has 8–13 carpels, numerous basal ovules, and sessile stigmas.
Salicaceae often has two-ranked or spiral leaves with stipules and toothed margins. The flowers are rather small and the numbers of parts variable, but when petals are present they equal the sepals in number. The nectary disc is often well developed and borne outside the stamens. The fruit is variable, but the seeds often have fleshy arils.
Most willows and many poplars (poplar) can reproduce by producing roots when robust stems are placed in wet ground. Following forest fires, roots of aspens (aspen) produce suckers (sprouts) around the parent stump; as a result, some aspen clones are thousands of years old. In addition to vegetative means of propagation, seeds are produced prodigiously; in the European aspen (P. tremula), for example, as many as 54 million seeds are produced each season on a single tree. Solitary bees arrive as the small flowers of willows emerge, and other insects also pollinate these plants. Some species of Populus are wind-pollinated. In Salix and Populus the minute seeds have tufts of hair that aid in their dispersal. Tropical members of the family have a variety of rather unspecialized pollinators because the nectar is often not well protected. Both Populus and Salix furnish a number of ornamentals. Twigs of Salix are much used in basketry, and the wood is used in making cricket bats. Populus is valuable in shelter belts, in coppicing, and as a source of wood for pulping and for matches.
The seed oil of Casearia sylvestris, native to Central and South America, was used to treat leprosy and wounds. Chew sticks, twigs of Casearia and other genera, are widely sold in small bundles in West African markets and used instead of toothbrushes. Many of the species used help to prevent tooth decay. West Indian boxwood, C. praecox, native to Venezuela and the West Indies, is a firm, close-grained wood popular among woodworkers. It is often substituted for true boxwood, Buxus sempervirens, a member of the order Buxales, in the making of veneers, carvings, and keyboards. Ryania angustifolia, of the Neotropics, is noted for having an extremely toxic and violent gastric poison in all parts of the plant, a poison that is used to kill alligators (alligator). The poisonous agent, ryanodine, is also an effective insecticide.
Violaceae, or the violet (Viola) family, contains 23 genera and 800 species of herbs to trees with a few vines. The family is largely tropical to warm temperate, although there are relatively few species in Malesia and Australia. Viola (400–600 species) is largely herbaceous and north temperate; Rinorea (160–270 species) is pantropical; and Hybanthus (90–150 species) is pantropical and warm temperate. Together they account for most of the family.
The leaves of Violaceae species are stipulate and toothed. The flowers have only five stamens, and there is a distinctive nectary spur. Nectar is secreted usually by appendages of the filaments and collects in a spur formed by the lower petal. Many species have capsular fruits in which the seeds are explosively squeezed out as the wall dries. However, there are a variety of floral and fruit morphologies in the family.
Twigs of Rinorea are used as chew sticks in West African markets. Viola is commonly grown as an ornamental (pansies (pansy), V. x wittrockiana, and other violets) in north temperate regions. Viola odorata has rhizomes (rhizome) and seeds that are poisonous and cause gastroenteritis, but it also has an essential oil much used in scents.
Passifloraceae, or the passion-flower family, contains 16 genera and more than 700 species, which are widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics, especially the Neotropics and Africa. Passifloraceae are mostly woody or herbaceous climbers with unbranched tendrils that arise between the stipules. The flowers are often showy, with rings of filaments or membranes inside the petals, and the stamens and ovary are borne on an androgynophore or gynophore. The fruit is a berry, and each seed is surrounded by a fleshy covering or aril. Passion-flower leaves are a preferred food of the beautiful heliconiid butterflies, and there is a very close ecological relationship between the two.
Passiflora (525 species, including the former genera Hollrungia and Tetrapathae) is found mostly in tropical and warm temperate regions of the Americas; a few species grow in Asia and Australia, and one species grows on Madagascar (there are none indigenous to Africa). Passiflora is esteemed by gardeners for its large beautiful and bizarre so-called passion flowers. This name comes from early Roman Catholic missionaries who traveled to South America from Spain. They saw in the flower the passion of Christ: the three stigmas represented the nails of the Crucifixion; the five anthers, the five wounds; the corona, the crown of thorns; and the five sepals and five petals together, the 10 apostles held by religious tradition to have been present at the Crucifixion. Various species of Passiflora from the Neotropics produce passion fruit, especially the banana passion fruit (P. mollissima). P. edulis, the purple granadilla, is probably the most important cultivated species of Passiflora grown in the subtropics. The long yellow fruit of P. quadrangularis is eaten as a vegetable when immature, although the mature fruit has been known to be poisonous. P. incarnata has an ingredient used in sedatives, and the flowers of P. x belotii are used to make scent. Adenia (about 100 species), which is native to tropical Africa and Asia, makes up most of the remaining species in the family. A. volkensii, of tropical Africa, is poisonous to humans, although other species of the genus are used medicinally. Distillations of the root of Paropsia (South Africa) and distillations of the twig bark of Smeathmannia (Liberia) are used to relieve toothaches.
Achariaceae contains 30 genera and 145 species of shrubs to trees, or rarely climbing herbs, which are scattered throughout the tropics. The Indo-Malesian Hydnocarpus (40 species) is the largest genus in the family. Ryparosa (18 species) is Malesian, and Lindackeria (14 species) grows in the Americas and Africa. Most species of Achariaceae were previously included in Flacourtiaceae, while Achariaceae in the original sense was a small and little-known family of herbaceous or semishrubby plants from Africa.
Florally, members of Achariaceae are distinctive in that the parts are spiral, not whorled, or if it is whorled, there are more petals than sepals, and the petals have a scale at the base on their inner surface. There are often numerous stamens. The seeds are distinctive because of the vascular bundles clearly visible on their surfaces. The seeds of Hydnocarpus are a source of chaulmoogra oil, at one time important in the treatment of leprosy. The presumed active agent in the oil, hydnocarpic acid, is believed to have antibiotic properties. The seeds of Caloncoba echinata, from west-central Africa, are the source of gorli oil, also used in the treatment of leprosy. (These old treatments for leprosy have been replaced by sulfone drugs and other modern antibiotics.) Achariaceae is chemically quite different from Salicaceae in that many members have cyanogenic compounds of a very distinctive type.
Members of Turneraceae, a family of 10 genera and 205 species, are found in the tropical and subtropical parts of the Americas, Africa, Madagascar, and the Mascarene Islands. Turnera (122 species) and Piriqueta (44 species) are both found in the Neotropics and Africa. Members of the family often have hairy toothed leaves with strong secondary venation but they lack stipules. In the flowers, the calyx and corolla together form a tube, and the petals overlap regularly and soon become deliquescent after wilting—that is, instead of drying as they wilt, they become soggy. The stigmas are often bifid and fringed. The capsular fruits have arillate seeds with a minutely and often regularly reticulate testa.
Smaller families
Malesherbiaceae contains only Malesherbia (24 species), a genus of herbs and shrubs from often dry regions of western subtropical South America. Members of Malesherbiaceae are fetid and often densely glandular hairy plants with distinctive flowers. The calyx and corolla tube is persistent in fruit. The stamens and ovary are borne on top of a short stalk or androgynophore.
Lacistemataceae is a small family of 2 genera and 14 species native to the tropical and subtropical Americas and the West Indies. Lacistema includes 11 species. The flowers are very reduced and are sometimes borne in almost catkinlike inflorescences.
Goupiaceae is a small family of evergreen trees with two species growing in northeastern South America. The leaves have parallel cross veins, and the inflorescences are umbellate. The petals are long, the apical part being inflexed. The fruit is a drupe.
Erythroxylaceae and Rhizophoraceae
Erythroxylaceae and Rhizophoraceae are very close, having similar distinctive chemistry and cell microstructure.
Erythroxylaceae, or the coca family, contains 4 genera and 240 species of smallish trees to shrubs, which are pantropical but mostly American. The family has entire, mostly alternate leaves without teeth and with stipules that in many species grow between the petiole and the stem. The rather small flowers are in groups in the leaf axils, and both sepals and filaments persist at the base of the fruit. Erythroxylum (230 species) is by far the largest genus in the family and has stamens that are usually joined at the base and of two different lengths. The fruits are fleshy drupes. The dried leaves of E. coca and E. novogranatense are still chewed by Amerindians in western South America, and both are a source of cocaine, which makes it a major (mostly illicit) crop in parts of Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia. A lowland variety of E. coca (ipadu) is cultivated in the Amazon basin of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. One variety of coca is legally grown in northern Peru and is used as a flavouring for the soft drink Coca-Cola (a name that is derived from the plant). Aneulophus (2 African species, A. africana and A. africanus) is much more like Rhizophoraceae than other Erythroxylaceae.
Rhizophoraceae, or the mangrove family, contains 16 genera and 149 species of trees that grow throughout the tropics. Three small genera, Rhizophora, Kandelia, and Bruguiera, are mangrove plants, and all grow in the Southeast Asia–Malesia area, but Rhizophora alone is pantropical. Cassipourea (62 species), native to Africa, the Americas, and Sri Lanka, Carallia (10 species), native from Madagascar to Australia, and other members of the family grow in tropical forests.
Rhizophoraceae have opposite leaves and large stipules, and they often have aerial roots. The petals are often lobed and hairy or with very narrow appendages. The ovary is more or less inferior. Seeds of the mangrove-dwellers have little endosperm and are viviparous—that is, they germinate precociously while still on the mother plant. The long pointed seedling root dangling from the trees is very characteristic. However, less-specialized Rhizophoraceae have capsular fruits with arillate seeds.
The main importance of the family is ecological, because mangroves form dense vegetation along the coast and in estuaries in the tropics that protects the land from erosion and the effects of tropical storms. The bark of mangrove is used in tanning, and the wood is used for pulp and in building.
The Clusiaceae group
Clusiaceae, Bonnetiaceae, Podostemaceae, and Hypericaceae (Saint-John's-wort) have many anatomical features in common. Their inflorescence is cymose; their petals overlap each other regularly in bud; and their flowers lack a nectary. Their capsular fruit opens down the radii of the partitions, and their seeds and embryo are distinctive. Within this group, Clusiaceae, Bonnetiaceae, and Podostemaceae all share a rather unusual class of chemical called xanthones. Members of these families often have many stamens, which tend to be in bundles. Clusiaceae and Podostemaceae have canals, cavities, or individual cells with exudate, and their ovules have only a single layer of cells over the embryo sac.
Clusiaceae and Bonnetiaceae have long been associated, even if Bonnetiaceae has in turn been linked to Theaceae (order Ericales), and they have many features in common with Elatinaceae. However, molecular data have shown a surprisingly close association of Clusiaceae and Bonnetiaceae with Podostemaceae. Indeed, Podostemaceae turns out to be particularly close to Hypericum and its immediate relatives, which has led to the latter's being reorganized into its own family, Hypericaceae. Podostemaceae species are so highly modified for life as aquatics that it was unclear as to what their relationships were before modern DNA analysis suggested a particular association with Clusiaceae.
Clusiaceae, or the garcinia family, contains 27 genera and 1,050 species, distributed worldwide, which are mostly woody shrubs to trees, some epiphytic (epiphyte), a few lianas (liana), and a few herbs. Clusia (300–400 species) is restricted to the New World. Garcinia (240 species, including former genera such as Rheedia and Tripetalum) is especially common in the Old World. Calophyllum (about 190 species) is found mostly in the Old World. Mammea (about 75 species) is found throughout the tropics, with many species in Madagascar. Kayea (about 70 species) includes one species from Sri Lanka, with most of the rest from western Malesia. Kielmeyera (50 species) is native to South America, especially Brazil. Chrysochlamys (55 species, including former genera such as Tovomitopsis) grows throughout the Neotropics.
Clusiaceae usually have opposite leaves that lack stipules; the margins of the blades lack teeth, and there are nearly always quite obvious glands or canals; there is often some exudate from the cut twig. The numerous stamens are quite often in bundles, and there are frequently various kinds of glands on the anthers. Plants with hermaphroditic flowers are common, but Clusia and Garcinia, in particular, have male and female flowers on different plants. Both fruits and seeds are highly variable. Seeds may be variously winged, have fleshy arils, or be borne in single-seeded berries or drupes. The seed may be made up almost entirely of massive cotyledons (cotyledon), or it may be equally massive but made up of the stem immediately below the cotyledons, which are reduced. Although little is known about pollinators, there is evidence that in South America, at least, bees visit the family for the oils and resins the flowers contain. Only in a very few genera, such as Symphonia, do birds and other visitors take nectar from the flowers. The exudate from some members of Clusiaceae is used medicinally. The principal edible fruits are mammee apples (M. americana) and mangosteens (the incomparable but rather slow-to-grow G. mangostana), although the fruits of other species of Garcinia also are edible. Calophyllum species yield useful timber; C. inophyllum and C. brasiliense are important in canoe manufacture.
Bonnetiaceae
Bonnetiaceae contains 3 genera and 35 species of evergreen shrubs. Ploiarium (3 species) is native to Malesia; Archytaea (2 species) is native to South America; Bonnetia (30 species) is native to South America, with one species from Cuba. Some Bonnetia grow at high altitudes on the tepuis of South America. Their leaves may then be borne in rosettes, and their stems are stout. Bonnetiaceae have long-pointed buds, usually rather closely set, spiral and minutely toothed leaves, and large flowers with many stamens.
Podostemaceae, or the riverweed family, contains about 48 genera and 270 species of annual and perennial herbs that grow in fast-flowing water. The family is largely tropical, especially in the Americas, but the number and limits of genera are unclear. The South American Apinagia has about 50 species. The plant body of Podostemaceae is so highly modified that ordinary botanical terms cannot be used to describe it, and they often look like small versions of marine algae such as kelp. There is no main root, and the plant body of many taxa is best described as like a thallus, although some species look like odd members of Apiaceae but with two-ranked leaves. The shoots arise from the roots, and the plant is attached to the substrate by a holdfast or haptera. The flowers or groups of flowers are produced above water when the river level drops in dry periods; they are often enveloped by a sheathing bractlike structure, and the small seeds are often mucilaginous.
Hypericaceae consists of nine genera, of which Hypericum (about 370 species) is the most common genus in temperate areas and on tropical mountains. Other genera include Vismia (55 species), which is probably restricted to the Neotropics, and Harungana (50 species), native to Africa and Madagascar. Hypericum species are much used in herbal medicines but can be dangerous; H. perforatum is a serious weed in parts of North America, and it can photosensitize livestock that eat it. Several species of Hypericum are of horticultural value.
Ochnaceae, Medusagynaceae, and Quiinaceae
Ochnaceae, Medusagynaceae, and Quiinaceae form a group that has leaves with prominent fine venation, petals that overlap in a regular fashion, and no nectary.
Ochnaceae is a medium-size family of 27 genera and 495 species of tropical trees and shrubs, rarely herbs, that is especially diverse in Brazil. Ouratea (some 200 species, including Gomphia) is found throughout the tropics. Ochnaceae often have leathery leaves with rather sharply toothed margins, strong and often very handsome venation, stipules with strong parallel veins, and frequently fringed margins. The rather dry calyx is distinctive, and the anthers often open by holes. In Ochna the style is at the base of the ovary, and the fruit is a sort of berry or drupe. In other genera the style is at the top of the ovary, and the fruit is a capsule.
Medusagynaceae includes only Medusagyne oppositifolia, a rare species growing in the Seychelles. It is an evergreen with distinctive fibrous bark like that of Juniperus. The leaves are opposite, toothed, and with strongly reticulate venation. The flowers have many stamens, and the styles are on the edges of the ovary, not central. The valves of the fruit pull away from a central column except at the top.
Quiinaceae contains 4 genera and 55 species of evergreen trees or, less often, lianas, all from the Neotropics. The main genera are Quiina (about 25 species) and Lacunaria (12 species). The leaves are opposite, often compound, strongly stipulate, and with toothed margins. The pattern made by the finest veins is reminiscent of that made by brush strokes. There are well-developed mucilaginous canals. The fruit is usually a berry and is often longitudinally ridged when dry.
The Chrysobalanaceae group
In Chrysobalanaceae, Balanopaceae, Trigoniaceae, Dichapetalaceae, and Euphroniaceae, each ovary chamber usually has only two ovules, and the seeds have at most slight endosperm. Within this group, Chrysobalanaceae, Trigoniaceae, Dichapetalaceae, and Euphroniaceae are especially close. All have leaf margins that lack teeth; there are often flat, rarely raised glands on the lower surface of the leaf or, rarely, on the flower stalk or leaf margin. The flowers are zygomorphic, but the plane of symmetry is not vertical. There is a single style, and the ovules are distinctive.
Members of Chrysobalanaceae are woody evergreen plants, primarily of the Neotropics. Licania (about 170 species) is almost entirely restricted to the New World. Other large genera include Hirtella (105 species) from the Americas, East Africa, and Madagascar; Couepia (70 species) all from the Americas; and Parinari (45 species) from throughout the tropics. The leaves are in two ranks and either are dry blackish gray or have well-developed ladderlike fine veins. The flowers have a floral tube; there are often many stamens, and the ovary is borne on one side of the tube and has the style coming out more or less toward the base. The one-seeded fruit is usually relatively large, and the ovary is often lined with hairs.
Members of Dichapetalaceae are trees or lianas and include 3 genera and about 160 species. Dichapetalum (130 species) is the largest genus in the family; many species contain fluoroacetic acid, which makes them highly poisonous. The family is pantropical, though in Malesia there are only a few species of Dichapetalulm. The inflorescences are distinctive in that they often arise from the leaf stalk rather than in the leaf axils and the small flowers have deeply two-lobed petals that dry black. The fruit is a flattened or lobed drupe with one seed per chamber.
Trigoniaceae contains 5 genera and 28 species of evergreen trees and lianas (liana) with T-shaped hairs. The species are native to Central and South America, with Trigonia (24 species) the largest genus. Humbertiodendron (1 species) occurs on Madagascar, and Trigoniastrum (1 species) in western Malesia. The lower surface of the leaf blades is covered by dense whitish hairs. The flowers are rather pealike, and the fruit often opens internally and down the partitions.
Balanopaceae is a small family of evergreen trees. There is 1 genus, Balanops (9 species), which grows in the southwestern Pacific, especially on New Caledonia. The plant looks rather like Myrica (sweet gale) but lacks the distinctive glandular hairs. The male flowers are in catkins, and the female flowers are single and surrounded by a cupule of spirally arranged bracts. Sepals and petals are basically absent. The fruit is a fleshy drupe with two to three stones.
Euphroniaceae is a family of woody plants that have leaves in which the lower surfaces are covered with whitish indumentum. The flowers are rather pealike, but there are only three free petals; the fruit is a capsule that splits down the partitions and leaves a column in the middle. There is one genus, Euphronia, with two species that grow on the sandy substrates of the Guiana Highlands (Guinea Highlands) of South America.
Putranjivaceae and Lophopyxidaceae
Putranjivaceae contains 3 genera and about 210 species of evergreen trees of the tropics, especially Africa to Malesia. Drypetes (about 200 species) is found throughout this area. Putranjivaceae have two-ranked, often rather leathery leaves that are asymmetrical at the base. They frequently taste peppery or like an inferior radish when fresh because of the distinctive sulfur-containing chemicals they contain (the same class of glucosinolates, or mustard oils, that are present in the mustard family, Brassicaceae). The flowers are rather small, are either male or female, and are borne in groups in the axils of the leaves. The fleshy fruit, a drupe, is often crowned by the two or three persistent flaplike stigmas.
Lophopyxidaceae contains just one species, Lophopyxis maingayi, which is found from Malesia to the Solomon (Solomon Islands) and Caroline Islands. It is a tendrillate lianas, with small flowers, a five-winged fruit, and a single seed.
Euphorbiaceae, Peraceae, and Rafflesiaceae
In one of the more dramatic examples of how molecular evidence has shown novel relationships among plants, the traditional Euphorbiaceae has been split into five or six different families. Two of them, Putranjivaceae and Pandaceae, are actually quite distinct. Many of these families share explosively dehiscent fruit, with three chambers, seeds that are attached at the top inside angle of the chamber, and a persistent central column that remains after all other parts of the fruit have fallen off. Most members have rather small, unisexual flowers, although the two sexes are usually borne on the same plant.
Recent intensive molecular studies have shown that the previously unplaced family Rafflesiaceae, which lacks chlorophyll and is parasitic on other flowering plant families, is closely related to the core Euphorbiaceae. This finding, in fact, prompted the separate recognition of the family Peraceae, because it is the sister group to Rafflesiaceae and Euphorbiaceae combined.
Peraceae includes 5 genera and 135 species of pantropical shrubs and trees. The largest genus is Clutia (70 species), followed by Pera (40 species).
Rafflesiaceae used to include a variety of parasitic genera, but some of these have since been shown to belong to completely different orders of plants. Just 3 genera (Rafflesia, Rhizanthes, and Sapria) and 20 species remain in the family. Rafflesia, with 16 species mostly in the Malesian region, includes R. arnoldii, the plant with the largest single flower. Rafflesiaceae apparently experienced a huge increase in the size of its flowers during its initial evolution, which stands in sharp contrast to the relatively small size of the flowers in Euphorbiaceae and Peraceae. All members of Rafflesiaceae are parasitic on the stems or roots of members of the grape family, Vitaceae.
Euphorbiaceae, or the spurge family, contains 218 genera and about 5,700 species of herbs to trees, and sometimes lianas or vines, often with latex. It is pantropical but extends (mostly Euphorbia) into temperate regions. The flowers are small, either male or female; the perianth is usually inconspicuous; there are usually three chambers in the ovary; and the stigmas are quite prominent. The fruits have one seed per chamber, and the seeds often have a food body (caruncle) at the top.
Euphorbia (more than 2,200 species, including the former genera Chamaesyce, Pedilanthus, and Poinsettia) is the largest genus in the family. The whole inflorescence is highly reduced (the male flower has a single stamen, and the female flower lacks any petals) and functions as if it were a single flower. The tropical and warm temperate Croton (1,300 species) has distinctive pollen and stellate or scalelike hairs. Acalypha (430 species) is pantropical. Macaranga (240 species) is native to the Paleotropics, and a number provide homes to ants, which in turn protect the plant. Jatropha (175 species) is pantropical. Mallotus (140 species) is mostly Indo-Malesian. Dalechampia (115 species) is mostly New World, some with stinging hairs. The inflorescence looks like a single flower with attractive leafy bracts surrounding it. Tragia (170 species) is tropical and warm temperate, some with stinging hairs. Sapium (100 species) and Sebastiana (100 species) are tropical and warm temperate. Cnidosculus (75 species) is New World with stinging hairs.
Many Euphorbiaceae are very poisonous. Hippomane mancinella, the manchineel tree, has latex that can blind. The roots of Manihot esculenta yield an important food starch, variously known as manioc, cassava, or tapioca. Sapium ( tallow tree) yields a rubber and fat used in candles and soap and is also used as a decorative tree on city streets. Hura crepitans ( sandbox tree) has many carpels, unusual in the family; its almost ripe fruits were used in the past to hold sand to dry ink. Hevea brasiliensis, the rubber tree, yields a high-quality latex from incisions made on the stem that is made into natural rubber; although cultivated mostly in the Old World, the genus is native to the New World. Species of jatropha, Codiaeum (commonly called croton), and Acalypha ( copperleaf) are ornamentals. Species of Euphorbia in particular have many uses, although their sap is poisonous; there are many succulent species from Africa that are popular greenhouse plants—E. pulcherrima is the poinsettia, the bright red "petals" really being modified leafy bracts of the inflorescence. Croton tiglium produces croton oil, which is used as a strong purgative in the Old World. The sap of a group of South American species close to C. lechleri is called sangre de drago ("dragon's blood"); it is used for a variety of remedies such as wound healing and is marketed as an antidiarrheal for AIDS patients.
Phyllanthaceae and Picrodendraceae
The Phyllanthaceae and Picrodendraceae families, which were formerly associated with Euphorbiaceae, share explosive capsules, with two ovules per chamber.
Phyllanthaceae
Phyllanthaceae contains 59 genera and more than 1,700 species of herbs to trees that grow in tropical to warm temperate regions; the family is especially diverse in Malesia. Members of Phyllanthaceae have often finely cracking bark and two-ranked leaves that lack glands. The fruits have two seeds in each chamber. The pantropical Phyllanthus (about 1,300 species, including the former genera Glochidion, Breynia, and Sauropus) has simple leaves that often look as if they are leaflets of a compound leaf. Glochidion (about 300 species) is tropical, excluding mainland Africa, and species are particularly common in Indo-Malesia. Sauropus (70 species) grows from Indo-Malesia to Australia. Antidesma (100 species) is native to the Paleotropics and warm temperate regions. Cleistanthus (140 species) is native to the Paleotropics. Baccaurea (50 species) grows from Indo-Malesia to the western Pacific. Aporosa (90 species) is native to Indo-Malesia. Bridelia (50 species) grows throughout the Paleotropics. Uapaca (60 species) is found in Africa and Madagascar.
Picrodendraceae includes 80 species in 24 genera. The family is tropical, with genera especially common in the region of New Guinea, Australia, and New Caledonia, and species can be found in the Americas, Africa, and Madagascar. The species in the family are rather undistinguished-looking plants, with small flowers that lack any distinction between sepals and petals and often opposite leaves that are toothed and pinnately veined, with stipules. Their seeds often have a little fleshy appendage at one end that is involved in dispersal.
Ungrouped families
There are several unplaced families in Malpighiales. Members of Caryocaraceae are evergreen trees to shrubs whose leaves have three leaflets and basal stipules. The large flowers are borne in racemes at the ends of the branches and have many long, spreading stamens; the petals are relatively inconspicuous. The seedling root is spirally twisted. The family contains 2 genera, Anthodiscus (15 species) and Caryocar (6 species), which are found in the Neotropics, especially in Amazonia. Some fruits of Caryocar are used as fish poisons. In South America they are the source of edible souari nuts (souari nut), which are both collected in the wild (C. nuciferum) and cultivated (C. amygdaliferum).
Ctenolophonaceae includes a single genus, Ctenolophon, with three species from West Africa and Malesia. They may be recognized by their opposite toothless leaves, and there are stipules between the petioles. The inflorescences are terminal, and the flower buds are rather elongated. The petals overlap regularly. The gray-drying and closely ribbed fruit is distinctive; the rounded sepals persist, even growing somewhat after flowering.
Humiriaceae includes 8 genera and about 50 species of evergreen trees. Most, including Vantanea (16 species), Humiriastrum (12 species), and Humiria (4 species), grow in the Neotropics, but Saccoglottis (8 species) also grows in West Africa. The flowers are rather small but distinctive. The stamens are more or less fused in a tube and have prolongations at their apices. The fruit is a one- or two-seeded drupe with a ridged stone. The wood of Humiria, in particular, can become beautifully scented after it is attacked by fungi, and then it can be used as incense. The fruit is sometimes edible.
Linaceae, or the flax family, contains 10 to 12 genera and about 300 species of herbs to trees or lianas with curved grapnels and fruits with only a few seeds. The family is found worldwide but especially in north temperate and subtropical regions. Linum (180 species) is a temperate to subtropical genus. Linum usitatissimum ( flax) yields fibres and linseed oil, a drying oil. Although Linum is a familiar plant, the relationships of the family, and indeed its basic morphology, are not well understood.
Peridiscaceae consists of three small genera of the tropics: Peridiscus is found in Amazonian Brazil and Venezuela; Whittonia is restricted to Guyana in northeastern South America; and Soyauxia is native to West Africa.
Irvingiaceae contains 3 genera and 10 species of tropical trees found in Africa and from Southeast Asia to western Malesia. The leaves are rather distinctive with their longitudinal markings, large deciduous stipules that enclose the prominent pointed terminal bud, and closely parallel secondary venation. The thin sepals persist in fruit and are conspicuously reflexed, and the nectary disc is very obvious. The species in the family used to be included in the tree of heaven family, Simaroubaceae.
Pandaceae contains 3 genera and 15 species of trees to shrubs, growing from Africa to New Guinea. Microdesmis (10 species) grows almost throughout the range of the family. The branches often look like compound leaves, and the male and female flowers are small and borne on separate plants. The fruit is a drupe.
Ixonanthaceae contains 4 or 5 genera and 21 species of trees scattered throughout the tropics.
Centroplacaceae contains just one genus with one species, Centroplacus glaucinus, from West Africa.
Paul E. Berry
Malpeque Bay
malpighian tubule
Malpighiales — Flower of Calophyllum inophyllum Scientific classification Kingdom … Wikipedia
Malpighiales — Malpighiales … Wikipédia en Français
Malpighiales — Malpighiales … Wikipedia Español
Malpighiales — Malpighienartige Galphimia brasiliensis Systematik Überabteilung: Samenpflanzen (Spermatophyta) Abteilung … Deutsch Wikipedia
Malpighiales — Vease texto Las Malpighiales son un Orden extenso de plantas, incluidas dentro del grupo denominado rosid por clasificación filogenética APG. Su sistemática interna está aún por determinar. Dentro de la antigua sistemática Cronquist, las familias … Enciclopedia Universal
Malpighiales — … Википедия
Семейства покрытосеменных (APG III) — Приложение к статье Система APG III Кладограмма Системы APG III Кладограмма Системы классификации APG III (внутри групп названи … Википедия
Семейства цветковых растений (APG III) — Приложение к статье Система APG III Кладограмма Системы APG III Кладограмма Системы классификации APG III (внутри групп названия таксонов р … Википедия
Noms des ordres en APG II — Une liste de nom des ordres. Les noms gras sont les noms courantes en la classification APG II (2003). Les noms italiques ne sont pas assigné en APG II. Acanthales Lindl. (1833) = Lamiales Acerales Lindl. (1833) = Sapindales Acorales Reveal… … Wikipédia en Français


The Ministry of Interior of Taiwan has recently announced that it is going to change the numbering system for Alien Residency Certificates (ARC) to have them match the format of Taiwan national identification cards of all Taiwan citizens. It is expected to benefit over one million foreign residents from the new scheme.
The goal with this change is to create a more harmonious living environment for migrants and to implement the government's policy of attracting and recruiting foreign talent.
With the new measure, it would improve the daily living convenience for expat residents by enabling them to easily make online purchases, book tickets for concerts, use public transport, and register for visits, with as much ease as the locals.
The current ARC numbering system will be changed from two letters and an eight-digit number, to one letter and a nine-digit number to coincide the format of Taiwanese national ID cards.
This is a major institutional change that is ahead of the majority of the world's countries and in terms of food, clothing, housing, and transportation it marks a major milestone in Taiwan's immigration policy for resident immigrants by implementing treatment on an equal footing with citizens. In the meantime, there are hopes the new numbering system will help pave the way for retaining and recruiting talent.
Per government official statement: While there is no timetable for implementation, ministries would convene a meeting as soon as possible to discuss the next steps, especially computer system revisions, including the National Health Insurance Administration's health insurance cards and the Ministry of Transportation and Communication's driver's licenses.


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text:
EPL clubs expected to spend more than last year during transfer window
Published Friday, January 31, 2014
The January transfer window closes late Friday and English topflight clubs have already spent 10 million pounds ($16.5 million) more than this time last year.
According to football finance experts Deloitte, Premier League clubs have spent 95 million pounds ($156 million) on acquiring new players ahead of the deadline day, with gross spending at this point last season reaching 85 million pounds ($140 million).
On the final day of the window in January 2013, top-flight clubs spent 35 million pounds ($57.5 million). Regardless of the amount of activity on Friday,
Deloitte says Premier League clubs have already set a record for transfer spending this season, which broke the "700 million pounds ($1.15 billion) mark for the first time, with spending currently at 725 million pounds ($1.19 billion)."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Breeders' bassist Josephine Wiggs has announced her first solo album, We Fall, alongside sharing the lead instrumental, "Time Does Not Bring Relief".
Both ambient and melancholic, "Time Does Not Bring Relief" is the first offering to be lifted from Wiggs' solo venture, which is her first music release since last year's All Nerve album with The Breeders.
Wiggs' We Fall will feature drums and electronic input from Jon Mattock of Spacemen3 and Spiritualized.
On the upcoming record, Wiggs states it's "a crystalline meditation on paths not taken and words unspoken, an elegy for moments lost and last embraces."
"Time Does Not Bring Relief" is out now. Josephine Wiggs' album, We Fall, arrives 17 May via The Sound of Sinners.


Taliban rebels have killed a kidnapped election candidate as well as a senior district official and three policemen, a Taliban spokesman said.
The candidate for the 18 September elections, Khan Mohammad, running for a seat on a provincial council in Kandahar province, was captured along with a district chief and three policemen when they were travelling together in the south of the country on Friday, police said.
"We have killed them. We shot them," the Taliban spokesman, Abdul Latif Hakimi, told Reuters by telephone on Saturday from an undisclosed location.
The Taliban, ousted by US and opposition forces in 2001, have condemned the parliamentary and provincial elections and claimed responsibility for attacks on several candidates.
Earlier, the Taliban spokesman said a Taliban council, or shura, would decide the fate of the kidnapped five.
More than 1000 other people, most of them fighters but including 49 US soldiers, have been killed in a surge of clashes, ambushes and bombings this year.
US and Afghan government forces have mounted a series of operations in the south and east in recent months aimed at clearing out fighters and ensuring security for the elections.
Afghan and US officials say the vote will not be disrupted.
Meanwhile, an Afghan doctor on Saturday said two bodies found in Afghanistan are those of Japanese tourists who went missing along the Afghan-Pakistani border last month.
The bodies of a man and a woman were found in the desert near the main road between the southern city of Kandahar and the capital, Kabul.
The bodies were sent to Kabul on Friday to be examined.
"The dental records for the Japanese we received match," Eahsanullah Halemi, head of the hospital where the bodies were examined, told reporters.
"Both are the missing Japanese," he said.
The two were teachers - named by their school as technical arts teacher Jun Fukusho, 44, and female English teacher Shinobu Hasegawa, 30 - and were reported missing after they failed to return from a holiday in the region last month.
The pair had been shot and their bodies dumped near the Spin Boldak highway, which links the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar with the Pakistani border town of Chaman, where the couple had crossed into Afghanistan on 8 August.


text:
Kathryn Francis
Kathryn Francis is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Psychology at the University of Bradford, UK. Prior to this she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in psychology and philosophy at the University of Reading, UK. Kathryn completed her PhD in experimental psychology in "CogNovo", a Marie-Curie funded PhD initiative at the University of Plymouth, UK.
Kathryn's interests lie at the intersection of psychology and philosophy, predominantly in moral cognition. Kathryn adopts interdisciplinary approaches and state-of-the-art technologies to investigate moral decision-making.
Her personal webpage can be accessed here.
© 2018, The Karel Čapek Center for Values in Science and Technology
© 2018, The Karel Čapek Center for Values in Science and Technology | Cookies


WASHINGTON – President Obama put a new shine on his Obamacare pitch Monday night and asked his most loyal supporters to help him sell it to the American people.
Obama urged Organizing for Action volunteers to help him spread "far and wide" the good news of the Affordable Care Act, which he said had always been about "making the insurance market better for everybody."
"That was part of the promise," Obama told the crowd, explaining that he always meant to convey that people could keep an old healthcare plan "if it hadn't changed since the law was passed."
Obama hasn't always added that last clause, of course, and that failure has fueled the controversy around the healthcare marketplaces he launched Oct. 1. As it turns out, as many as 4 million people might have to give up plans they acquired since the law was passed if the plans don't meet the Affordable Care Act's minimum requirements of coverage.
At the gathering in Washington, Obama retooled his explanation, pointing to the days when the individual health market had "no standards" and promising a better day for those who sign up during the open enrollment period between now and March 31.
In the lead-up to Obama's appearance at the St. Regis hotel a few blocks from the White House, his allies and former advisors used campaign-style language – encouraging activists to keep up "the fight" and activate an "army" of volunteers to help Americans enroll.
Striking a similar theme, Obama joked that "a lot of us didn't realize that passing the law was the easy part." The president also suggested that stories about "controversies" were getting more news coverage than the anecdotes about Americans who had been able to sign up for healthcare coverage for the first time.
To that end, he told the crowd of supporters that he needed their help. "I've got one more campaign in me – the campaign to make sure that this law works for every single person in this country," Obama said.
Despite the troubles that have fouled the insurance website, Obama tried to reassure his emissaries that they could promote his plan in good conscience. There's still time to get the website up and running and get people enrolled, he said. "It's not like this is a one-day sale."
The long-planned Obamacare summit organized by Organizing for Action, the nonprofit formed by Obama's 2012 advisors, comes at a crucial time for the president's healthcare program. Many states, including California, are still struggling to get enrollment counselors and healthcare educators in place to sign up those seeking insurance. In states where Republican leaders are actively resisting implementation, there is not much of a public education campaign about the law.
During "breakout sessions" that stretched for much of the day, onetime volunteers, campaign alumni, former Obama for American donors and healthcare activists from around the country were encouraged to share ideas about encouraging enrollment and publicizing the more positive aspects of the law.
Both David Plouffe, Obama's former White House advisor, and Organizing for Action Executive Director Jon Carson acknowledged "the setbacks" related to healthcare.gov, but encouraged the 200 activists to make "concrete plans" for getting Americans enrolled over the next five months and counter the "misinformation" around the country.
"You guys know how to organize, you know how to work social networks," Plouffe said. "We are going to need you to get the word out."
Plouffe said there was a silver lining to the problems with the healthcare.gov website. Because of the news coverage, he said, more Americans were talking about the law and the fact that they could sign up for health insurance through the new exchanges.
Organizing for Action activists have been working with other groups to try to reach the uninsured across America, but their attention has been diverted to other issues like gun control and climate change. Advisors signaled that the president's healthcare law would become a far more central focus as they headed into the holiday season.
"We're going to have plenty of time to do what we need to do," Plouffe said.


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Introduction. Originating Canons and Communities: Theories of Language and Rhetoric in the Qur'an, the Bible, and Exegetical Literatures
Mårtensson, Ulrika; Ivar Østmoe, Tor
The Appealing Qur'an: On the Rhetorical Strategy of Vocatives and Interpellation in the Qur'an
Hoffmann, Thomas
Muslim subjectivity is created and shaped by means of certain linguistic-rhetorical traits and techniques prevalent in the Qur'an. This hypothesis implies that rhetorical choices and strategies were crucial for the emergence and gestalt of the Qur'anic discourse, it oratorical Sitz im Leben. In...
Rhetorical Battles: Jesus as Speaker in the Gospel of Mark
Ivar Østmoe, Tor
Building on research relating the New Testament to Greek and Roman literary culture, the article explores the Gospel of Mark's representation of Jesus as speaker. In focus are dialogues in the Gospel's seventh chapter which take place between Jesus and characters with different social background...
Divine Sensations: Sensory Language and Rhetoric in Bernard of Clairvaux's 'On Conversion'
Engh, Line Cecilie
What does it mean to speak of God in a sensory language? Christian exegetes in the middle ages were steeped in a Biblical language of visions and voices, not to mention the anthropomorphic and sensual imagery of the Song of Songs. Although they had inherited early Christian theologians' distrust...
The sabab-khāṣṣ—ʿāmm Process as an Instructional Technique within Qur'anic Rhetoric
Harvey, Ramon
In his al-Itqān fī ʿulūm al-Qurʾān, al-Suyūṭī (d. 911/1505) draws attention to a Qur'anic rhetorical device by which an extra-scriptural occasion of revelation (sabab) causes the placement of a verse with a specific (khāṣṣ) intent, shifting the composition to a general (ʿāmm) verse on a related...
God Loves not the Wrongdoers (ẓālimūn): Formulaic Repetition as a Rhetorical Strategy in the Qur'an
Christiansen, Johanne Louise
The Qur'an contains various types of repetition. One of them is the formula, a sequence of words or roots that occurs more than once in a text corpus. The formula as a literary feature is applied differently throughout the Qur'anic text. In the later material, for example, formulae often function...
Conceptions of Language and Rhetoric in Ancient and Medieval Judaism
Glinert, Lewis
This study explores conceptions of language and rhetoric in ancient and medieval Jewish life and writings which relate to Hebrew, other languages, and language per se, reflecting both 'religious' notions and ethnic and national praxis and identity. The main focus in those times was on the...


How has it been so long since I've hit publish?
Simon, once a troubled youth turn adventure seeker, is now a barista trying to get a spooky website off the ground. The cofounder, Thierry, sends Simon spelunking in search of three bodies left behind in a cave, Cwm Pot. Guided by the unbalanced Ed, they find the bodies, just as a flash flood traps him with the bones. The intense cold and darkness, along with Ed's corpse, terrorize Simon, but he makes it out alive with his film footage intact. The footage goes viral, against Simon's wishes, leaving Thierry wondering how to top it. He decides on a literal approach, and sends Simon to climb Mt. Everest to film the climbers who perished in the attempt. Once there, Simon realizes he didn't escape the cave alone, nor is he the only one haunted.
With an opening line that foreboding, I was hooked. Sarah Lotz's latest novel, The White Road, tells the tale of a doomed Simon, his ill-fated exploits, and the true weight of guilt. Lotz's prose, though standard, is visceral and compulsory, and she absolutely nails the claustrophobic atmosphere. Both the beginning and end of the novel are excellent, and though it lags in the middle, it's worth the journey to complete the whole thing. If you're looking for an easy page turner* with an ending that will haunt you, give The White Road a try.
*You really do have to overlook how heinously underqualified Simon is to be climbing Everest.
**I received a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion, thank you Mulholland!
A Perfectly Adequate Beach Guide For (Almost) Every Reader.


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Review of The Redwood Rebel (The Redwood War Series Book 1) by Lorna George
In the aftermath of civil war, the people of Ffion starve. The trade has dwindled, the harvest has failed, and all power belongs to the cruel and corrupt. Those few who could have fled the forest continent for other lands, but most are trapped by their poverty and love of their homeland, with little hope for change.
Far beneath Chloris Castle, the rebel Naomi has been incarcerated since the tyrannical Princess Adrienne stole the Redwood Throne. Starved of light and warmth for the past four years, she has had only her rage and determination to keep her going as she both fears and yearns for death to claim her at last.
In a violent sweep of fate, she is dragged back into the light once more, the Princess and her Councillor hoping to use her as a pawn against the powerful Dragon King of Koren. Faced with an almost impossible choice, Naomi strikes a deal with her captors that will set her free at last.
Unfortunately, she soon finds she has taken on much more than she bargained for.
The Redwood Rebel by Lorna George is an epic fantasy that pulled me in and kept me glued to my iPad until I finished it. If you love strong female characters, then look no further than Naomi. Naomi has suffered in a way most people wouldn't survive, and it has given her strength, resiliency, and a focus on righting the wrongs that have been done. When she finds herself in a marriage she never agreed to, Naomi has no intent of submitting to the arrangement. Instead, she explains to Arun how he is treating her as someone less than his equal just because she's a female. There were several times while I was reading that I thought, "You tell him, Naomi!" However, Arun isn't a bad guy; his culture is different, and he truly has no idea that he's not treating Naomi as he should be. I really enjoyed the focus on diversity and gender equality that the book had. I think it added a layer of depth to the fantasy story without taking anything away from it. The magic and fantasy creatures were exciting, and I had no trouble finding myself in the middle of the magical forest. The one thing I will mention for those who don't like to wait is that the book does end on a cliffhanger, and the second one isn't out yet. However, I have faith it'll be worth the wait if it's as good as this one! I definitely recommend reading this book.
Lorna George lives in a crooked little house in Norfolk with her husband, her dog, a lot of books, and a fifty-one year old begonia named Frank. She spends an inordinate amount of time dreaming up magic, dragons, and bad-ass ladies, and has decided to try and make some sort of career from it by writing them down. She hopes this will give her a reasonable excuse when caught staring wistfully out of windows when she should be paying attention to the not-so-mystical "Real World".
She realises this is where an author would usually write their experience and qualifications, but honestly, all she's ever done is write a book that one time.
She is currently working on a second one.
Author Stalker Links:
Book Outlets
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Illustrations by Juliette Brocal
Tagged: #bookreviews, dragons, fantasy, feminism, lornageorge, theredwoodrebel
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Drone filming is changing the way filmmakers get spectacular swooping tracking shots, but until relatively recently US laws did not allow drone cameras to be used, even over Hollywood studio lots – which is why scenes shot in this way have generally been produced overseas, with some very recent exceptions.
Even in the UK, larger drones can only be flown in designated 'danger areas' and any drones flown for commercial use – such as by a third-party drone film company or for a commercially released movie – must be licensed by the CAA.
Besides all of that, drone cameras are best used where there is spectacular scenery to capture or, in some cases, for rooftop scenes like the motorcycle chase in the James Bond movie Skyfall.
If you are planning to film in an EU member state, then you should be aware of the laws in place across the European Union, including the regulations set out by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
These are becoming gradually more consistent across the entire EU, but it's also worth being aware that individual member states vary in terms of their own aviation laws and their classifications of 'small' and 'large' drones by weight – usually around the 20-25kg mark.
At worst, you could be at risk of taking a perfectly legal drone from the UK to mainland Europe, only to discover you have planned your film shoot in a country where your drone is not permitted to fly, so always check local laws well in advance.
Unlike a pilot's licence, it is unlikely that a drone operator licence from any one European country will be recognised by the others, and Spain in particular has strict requirements for qualified drone operators – even including a medical as you would go through to pilot a manned aircraft.
The Spanish aviation authority is Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aerea (AESA) – not to be confused with the EU-wide EASA – and with the right approval you should be able to film both on mainland Spain and on the country's islands, giving you plenty of scenery options to choose from.
Learn to recognise the legal limits on drone flight, especially if you are not experienced at flying an airborne craft and appreciating distances over all three dimensions.
In Germany, for instance, you usually cannot fly a drone within 1.5 kilometres of an airport; that's nearly a mile, and a hard distance to judge without any reference points.
Where your planned film shoot is close to any of the limits on altitude or proximity to built-up areas, try to use a nearby landmark, tree or other feature of the terrain as a reference so you can tell if your drone is drifting into a restricted area.
Some of the most impressive drone cinematography comes from long, swooping shots over large distances, but local regulations might prevent you from flying the drone out of your own line of sight, even if you have live video from onboard to allow you to safely steer.
In France, you can potentially get around this by having a 'spotter' who will keep the drone in full view from their vantage point, even when you can no longer see it.
By doing this, you may legally be allowed to fly a drone out of your own view, although as a matter of best practice you should still aim to keep it in sight as much as possible.
Finally, remember that the code of good practice applies equally to commercial drone use as to recreational use, so make sure that you follow the same general guidelines except where you have obtained special permission to film in an area where drones would normally not be allowed.
For example, you usually would not fly a drone over an inhabited area or close to buildings; for a rooftop scene like that in Skyfall, which was filmed in Istanbul, you would need careful planning to ensure nobody on the ground was put at risk.
Safe flying should always be the priority; drones are very nimble and quite light, but can still pose a hazard if flown recklessly. If in doubt, always hire a reputable drone filming company to do the work for you.


Below is a list of talks I gave. See the publications section for conference presentations.
In this talk, we will discuss stair climbing experiments carried out with the HRP-4 humanoid as part of an Airbus manufacturing use case. Our solution is based on linear inverted pendulum tracking, quadratic-programming wrench distribution and a whole-body admittance controller that relies on both end-effector and CoM strategies. After presenting these components, we will open up the discussion on the interplay between end-effector and CoM strategies, as well as their potential applications in multi-contact.
Real robots that walk in the field today rely on the Linear Inverted Pendulum Mode (LIPM) for walking control. Rigorously, the LIPM requires the robot's center-of-mass to lie in a plane, which is valid for walking on flat surfaces but becomes inexact over more general terrains. In this talk, we will see how to extend the LIPM to 3D walking, opening up old but refreshed questions on the analysis and control of bipeds. Technically, we will encounter a nonlinear control problem that we address by model predictive control of a quasi-convex optimization problem. We will see how the resulting controller works on the HRP-4 humanoid robot.


This is an animated gif of a woman bending over to use a neti pot while sunglasses fall and land on her face before the text "Deal with it" appears. Neti pots are often used by those suffering from hay fever and sinusitis. It basically allows you to pour a saline solution into one of your nostrils and have it come out the other one. Use this gif whenever somebody is clearly mad.
Did We Just Become Best Friends?!
I Am Legend - NO!


The period 10,000 years ago in the southern Levant (Jordan and Palestine/Israel) known as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), is widely regarded as an essential transition period. It is the first place and time anywhere in the world where we have evidence of the beginning of agriculture and people living in villages year-round, instead of moving throughout the landscape following food availability. Many researchers have argued that the inhabitants of the PPNB settlements in the Middle East experienced high levels of food stress. This food stress, what archaeologists often refer to as subsistence pressure, would have been the result of a growing population living a sedentary lifestyle, and has been said to be what spurred the beginnings of herding animals in the region. I analyzed bones from a small, seasonally occupied PPNB settlement in West-Central Jordan, known as al-Khayran, in order to test the idea that the site's occupants were experiencing subsistence pressure. My hypothesis was that, because the settlement population was likely small and temporary, the inhabitants would not have been experiencing the same food stresses as people at other sites from the time period.
Subsistence pressure can be identified with a variety of archaeological tests, including a reduction in the size of animals, an increase in younger animals being hunted, an increase in the number of different species being hunted (especially smaller and faster ones), and an increase in the processing of animal bones, in order to extract more resources from them. If al-Khayran was experiencing a similar amount of subsistence stress as contemporary sites, then there might be evidence of some or all of these patterns. I specifically looked at whether or not the individuals at al-Khayran were breaking the bones in order to extract marrow or render bone-grease from them.
The bones excavated from the site were incredibly fractured from previous exposure and their recovery during excavations, but some of these fractures could have been due to intensive resource extraction practices. It is possible to tell if fractures are perimortem (created near the time of death of an animal, as would be expected if the inhabitants of al-Khayran were processing the bones) or postmortem (occurring well after death, as would be expected if they were not created to extract resources), based on their shape. I examined the shape of the bone breaks at al-Khayran and, ultimately, only two of the 188 examined fractures potentially exhibited marrow extraction or bone-grease rendering traits. Additionally, with refitting studies of these bones, both of these fractures were determined to be postmortem, based on their proximity to other postmortem fractures. These results could not disprove my hypothesis that the inhabitants of al-Khayran were not experiencing significant food stress. They leave open the possibility that there was greater variability in subsistence pressure during the PPNB than is typically discussed in the literature.
The Frederick Allen Lodge, a chapter of the International Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World (I.B.P.O. of W.), has been described to me as the "last Black establishment" in Saratoga Springs, New York. This organization, focused on community building and charity initiatives, has been a part of the city of Saratoga since 1925. For 90 years, the Frederick Allen Lodge and its members have witnessed the city of Saratoga Springs undergo many changes. Elk's member and native of Saratoga Springs, John Rockwell shares that he speaks to non-natives that say 'Saratoga Springs has always been a white washed town'. Rockwell, a white member of the Frederick Allen Lodge, confronts this notion with stories of Saratoga Springs when it had a thriving Black community. This "collective forgetfulness", as described by Michelle Pacquette of the Saratoga Springs Preservation Foundation, is due in part to the lack of a visible Black presence in the Saratoga Springs community. In 1962, the city of Saratoga Springs' Urban Renewal Board was created with Donald Veitch as its leader. For the next twenty years, the buying of property, "relocating of residents, contracting for demolition, and subsequent grading and utility work, and reparceling out the land for sale" was taking place on the west side of Saratoga Springs (Saratoga County Chamber 2010). This redevelopment removed the city's Black neighborhood and replaced it with an apartment building, a shopping center, and other commercial buildings on Congress Street. The Saratoga County Chamber acknowledges that their Urban Renewal project wasn't without flaws: "In Saratoga's case, Congress Street had been a vibrant African-American community for several generations, and its residents were dispersed throughout the city, losing their familiar community context of churches, businesses and homes" (2010). As of 2014, the Census Bureau has suppressed data on Black owned businesses on account of there being less than three Black owned establishments in Saratoga Springs.
Frederick Allen Lodge resides at 69 Beekman Street, but the building is more than a location for a chapter of the I.B.P.O.E. of W. The lodge is the only establishment from the Congress Street neighborhood that has survived. It is the memories of this time period that fuel the members' desires to preserve what is left of the city's Black community. In this sense, the Elk's lodge is the primary vessel holding the memories of a once thriving community. Memories play an important role during the urban renewal process. Collective memory informs preservation efforts. The active members of the lodge and their many supporters value that history that lives through the stories, artifacts, and charity traditions of the lodge.
Anthropology of the body and mostly focus on what is applied to the skin in terms of body paint, tattoos and piercings. These perspectives of the body and skin allow one to understand the cultural methods behind these actions. Yet, the anthropology of skin has less focus on how an individual manages the skin's condition. The act of caring for skin is essential to understanding the role skincare plays in health and individual cultures. To understand cultural aspects of skincare, I explored skin rituals at spas in Saratoga Springs. There are many rituals behind the ways in which people go about taking care of and maintaining the quality of their skin. Human skin is a representation of the body it covers, and whatever goes on inside the body and whatever is applied to the skin itself is reflected through the condition of one's skin.
Saratoga Springs, New York has been a destination known for its spas and mineral bath/water treatments. For over a century travelers have been coming to Saratoga to bathe and drink in the mineral waters for positive and health beneficial effects on the body and its organs. I felt studying the presence and practice of skincare in an area known for spas and skin treatments was very relevant in understanding the anthropology of skincare and skin. I conducted my research at The Roosevelt Baths and Spa in the Gideon Putnam Resort, Saratoga Botanicals and the Complexions Spa for Beauty and Wellness. The Roosevelt is the oldest spa in Saratoga, still practicing the mineral bath treatments. Saratoga Botanicals, a relatively new, creates their own products from organic and holistic ingredients. Saratoga Botanicals encourages the holistic lifestyle based both on what an individual puts in his or her body and on the skin. Complexions Spa, also a new spa, is both a spa and salon, emphasizing the connection between wellness, beauty and health. Their available treatments incorporate these aspects together to create an understanding in maintenance of the body in a spa setting. By researching these three spas I was exposed to the similarities and differences in old and new skincare traditions in the spa destination of Saratoga Springs.
Within the location of a day spa, skincare is a daily practice. People go to the spa to receive professional treatment for their skin and learn more about how to care for their specific skin condition. The spa acts as a transitional space for someone seeking treatment in a relaxing environment that removes them from the outside world. Engulfed in a dimly lit atmosphere with relaxing music, individuals become separated from distractions from participating in a relaxing, healthy treatment. The spa acts as a space to allow an individual to access their well-being and relax the body into a healthy state as stress or anxiety within the body may cause negative side effects to the body's functions and condition.
Using anthropology as an academic discipline to challenge unfounded beliefs that permeate our society, this project works to dispel the myth that national identity and language are inextricably linked in contemporary society. English language learning has become a popular trend in Madrid, expanding in the public and private school systems (see map below). This is exemplified in ABC go! Nurseries with the promise that "ABC Go Nurseries is the place where your child will be encouraged to make the most of their natural born capacity to learn any language" (Figures 2 and 3). After interning at the nursery school in the Spring of 2014, I returned in January 2015 to discuss the purpose of having an English focused school for children between 0 and 4 years of age. During 20 semi-structured interviews with the teachers, director and parents involved with the nursery school in addition to other natives of Madrid, I found that learning English is now "imprescindible" or indispensable in the eyes of many Spaniards today.
Additionally, teachers and parents at the nursery school and adults above the age of thirty generally expressed the frustration they experienced throughout their lives attempting to learn English, many of who still feel uncomfortable speaking English after studying the language for numerous years. As Spain is not defined solely by the language of Spanish, citizens of Madrid are expressing the desire to open their doors little by little ("poco a poco"). As one participant explained, "I'm a international people… I would like to be more open to other countries," a sentiment repeated throughout many interviews, and they see the use of the English language is indispensable in this process.
English is prominent in the school systems of Madrid as well as on the streets through advertisements, through television and the media as well as through fashion. As the people of Madrid have come to embrace their globalized world, and with the language of English for the younger generations, identity shifts from being defined by the boarders of a country to becoming citizens of the world.
My interest in studying Falstaff's concerts with an anthropological lens combines my passion for music with anthropology. Coming into college with over a five years of formal music experience, a love for listening, and a desire to perform, I knew that I wanted to be involved with Skidmore's music scene. During my first few years at Skidmore, I attended over a dozen concerts and performed in three. Unfortunately with an increased workload my involvement in Skidmore's music scene began to dwindle, but in the spring semester of my sophomore year, I was able to combine my interest in music with a project in an anthropology seminar on Ritual and Religion during the spring semester of 2013. I was interested in exploring ritual components in concerts, specifically at Falstaff's, a popular campus venue at Skidmore for weekly music performances. During my research, I performed in two concerts, Battle of the Bands and an open mic night, observed after each set, and conducted interviews with four band members. In the fall semester 2014, my senior year, I expanded upon this research and focused more on interaction between the audience members and the musicians, who negotiate their identities within this cozy, small space.
I discovered that intimate concert venues on liberal arts college campuses, like Skidmore's, bring people together in a ritualized fashion where they can convene, interact, and leave refreshed with a new-found appreciation of the music they just heard and a sense of themselves as college students. This study exposes the expressiveness of music on a college campus among youth in their late teens and early 20s. Music acts as a gateway for social relationships among these students and a small intimate concert space helps facilitate this social process. The interaction between the audience members and performers creates a social experience that sticks with attendees even outside of the show. These memorable experiences at Falstaff's concerts lead students to keep on going back to Falstaff's, which continues the ritual of attendance and performance at this popular concert venue.
Based in the cities of Saratoga Springs and Schenectady, located in the northeastern area of New York State, this ethnographic project is geographically specific but relates to a larger context and setting. Themes of stigmatization and generalization of post-industrial cities and communities can be applied to many locations in the United States. Sometimes propelled by media representation, the social image of cities are in a constant state of change and therefore never "are", rather always "becoming". Of course, a generalized social image of a city may speak to some sort of truth, but it is wrong to say that this image shows a fully objective truth. My locally-based research challenges this idea of linear, stagnant urban development of physical landscape and image through the memories of local individuals who have lived and experienced the cities. Here, individual memories and conceptions of physical spaces can prove to be powerful tools in deconstructing the common trend of labeling cities specifically. My project reveals the complex, multi-layered and ever-changing nature of urban space, through the voice of those whom occupy that space.
One of the most important jobs archaeologists do is put the past into perspective. One way they are able to get a better understanding of human history, is by spending time looking at material culture and bones from our past. The past still affects the present and the ways in which we understand those who came before us. About 10,000 years ago, during a period known as the Pre Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) of the Southern Levant (present-day Jordan, Palestine/Israel), humans were transitioning from nomadic living to living in one place year-round. With this move came a slow transition from hunting to herding as the main way that people got animal resources. In my project I looked at goat bones from the PPNB site of al-Khayran in Jordan, in order to understand how the people who lived there acquired animal resources. Most zooarchaeologists who study animal bones from the PPNB have focused on herding, because it is the first time anywhere in the world that people reared animals within their communities. However, the development of herding was a slow process and we know that people were also hunting at this time. So which was being done at al-Khayran?
I hypothesized that people at al-Khayran were hunting animals, rather than herding them. In order to predict what the archaeological record at al-Khayran would look like if people were hunting animals, I examined zooarchaeological research at other sites from this time period and utilized a body of ecological theories known as Optimal Foraging Theory. I then developed and tested the hypothesis that people at al-Khayran were attempting to meet their basic nutritional requirements, while minimizing the amount of time they were devoting to hunting. By taking a number of measurements on the bones from al-Khayran and comparing these measurements to the expectations derived from my hypothesis, I found this not to be true. While a small sample size created challenges for producing significant results for a number of tests, those that were found to be significant did disprove time minimization behavior in animal procurement practices. What this tells us is that the inhabitants of al-Khayran were not desperately pressed for resources. Instead, there were some other reasons why people were hunting at al-Khayran. As a number of authors, most notably John Speth, have argued that hunting is frequently less about meeting basic needs than it is about showing off social status, having fun, bonding with others, and/or acquiring meat because of its taste, rather than its nutritional value.
I remember my first time attending the Saratoga Farmers' Market on a warm sunny summer day many years ago. I believe I happened upon it while I was strolling through town, rather than deliberately going there. I recall feeling at home as I walked around the market, surrounded by faces that I had never seen, yet that looked familiar and welcoming. This farmers' market experience drew me in, turning me into a regular customer, and later became the setting for my senior capstone research for six months from October 2014 to April 2015.
Farmers' markets have become increasingly popular alternative spaces for the exchange of local food within large-scale capitalist structures. My research at the Saratoga Springs Farmers' Market, in upstate New York, revealed how social interactions and economics coexists as notions for selling at the market. I also discovered how fruitful social interactions between consumers and producers at the farmers market are gateways for building bridges of trust, loyalty, and security for producers, which contribute to their experience of making a living.
My project had a strong focus on visual material. I took the images in this post during my fieldwork at the market, and the images demonstrate the social relationships that take place habitually in the space. I aimed to capture decisive moments that illustrate experiences of fulfillment and close interactions.


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