Clethraceae

Clethraceae
Clethra arborea flowers
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Ericales
Family:	Clethraceae Klotzsch
Genera
Clethra Purdiaea

Clethraceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Ericales, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Asia and the Americas, with one species also on Madeira. The family comprises two genera, Clethra and Purdiaea.

In the past, most botanists included only Clethra in the family, but recent research has shown that the genus Purdiaea, previously placed in the closely related family Cyrillaceae, is more closely allied to Clethra (Anderberg & Zhang 2002).

References

• Clethraceae in L. Watson and M.J. Dallwitz (1992 onwards). The families of flowering plants.
• Germplasm Resources Information Network: Clethraceae
• Anderberg, A. A. & Zhang, Z. (2002). Phylogenetic relationships of Cyrillaceae and Clethraceae (Ericales) with special emphasis on the genus Purdiaea. Organisms, Div. & Evol. 2: 127–137.