Log In New Account Sitemap
  • Home
  • Specimen Search
    • Search Collections
    • Map Search
    • Exsiccati Search
  • Images
    • Image Browser
    • Search Images
  • Flora Projects
    • Arizona
    • New Mexico
    • Colorado Plateau
    • Plant Atlas of Arizona (PAPAZ)
    • Sonoran Desert
    • Teaching Checklists
  • Agency Floras
    • NPS - Intermountain
    • USFWS - Region 2
    • USFS - Southwestern Region
    • BLM Flora
    • Coronado NF
    • Tonto NF
  • Dynamic Floras
    • Dynamic Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Additional Websites
    • New Mexico Flores
    • Plant Atlas Project of Arizona (PAPAZ)
    • Southwest Colorado Wildflowers
    • Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness
    • Consortium of Midwest Herbaria
    • Consortium of Southern Rocky Mountain Herbaria
    • Intermountain Region Herbaria Network (IRHN)
    • Mid-Atlantic Herbaria
    • North American Network of Small Herbaria (NANSH)
    • Northern Great Plains Herbaria
    • Red de Herbarios del Noroeste de México (northern Mexico)
    • SERNEC - Southeastern USA
    • Texas Oklahoma Regional Consortium of Herbaria (TORCH)
  • Resources
    • Symbiota Docs
    • Video Tutorials
    • Collections in SEINet
    • Joining a Portal
Styrax
Family: Styracaceae
Styrax image
  • FNA
  • Gleason & Cronquist
  • Resources
Peter W. Fritsch in Flora of North America (vol. 8)
Shrubs or trees: pith continuous; winter buds without scales; fertile shoots of current growing season with fully developed leaves. Leaf blades: margins coarsely toothed, denticulate, serrate, or entire, rarely also lobed. Inflorescences borne on shoots of current growing season, false-terminal or axillary racemes or panicles, (2-)3-19-flowered, sometimes solitary flowers, articulation between pedicel and flower absent. Flowers: hypanthium adnate only to proximal portion of ovary wall; sepals (2-)4-5(-9), connate, forming tube with (2-)5(-9) minute, apical teeth; corolla lobes 5-6(-8), imbricate or subinduplicate-valvate in bud, portion free from androecium distinct or nearly so [connate proximally]; stamens [5-]10(-16); filaments with free portion completely distinct or connate proximally; pistil 3-carpellate; ovary partly inferior, proximally 3-septate; ovules [1-2] ca. 8 per carpel, erect, bitegmic. Fruits capsular and 3-valved, or nutlike (in S. grandifolius) [drupaceous], not winged, ellipsoid to globose; beak indistinct. Seeds 1(-3), completely filling fruit cavity, with 3(-6) longitudinal grooves, ellipsoid to globose; hilum conspicuous; seed coat thick, indurate. x = 8. As reviewed in J. H. Langenheim (2003), many species of Styrax produce a resin exuded from wounds in the bark and wood. The southeastern Asian species S. benzoin Dryander, S. paralleloneurus Perkins, and S. tonkinensis Craib ex Hartwich are commercial sources of benzoin, a resin used medicinally as a mild antiseptic and expectorant, and in the flavor and fragrance industries. Styrax officinalis Linnaeus, native in the eastern Mediterranean region, is often anecdotally reported as a source of the resin storax (the primary source being Liquidambar orientalis Miller); well-documented bark-wounding experiments on individuals in a natural population of S. officinalis failed to produce resin (N. Zeybek 1970). To my knowledge, resin induction in any of our native species has not been attempted. Some Styrax species are cultivated for ornament in the flora area (S. A. Spongberg 1976b; J. C. Raulston 1992). Most of the species are deciduous Asian members of series Styrax; all the native species in the flora area are cultivated to some extent as well. Two Mexican species (S. glabrescens Bentham and S. ramirezii P. W. Fritsch) have been successfully grown in warmer parts of the United States.

Nearly all Styrax species in eastern Asia serve as exclusive primary hosts for gall-forming aphids (Hormaphidinae: Cerataphidini; D. L. Stern and W. A. Foster 1996). No galls from these aphids have been observed on New World or Mediterranean Styrax.

Styrax is divided into two sections (P. W. Fritsch 1999, 2001). The predominantly north-temperate sect. Styrax is distinguished from the subtropical to tropical sect. Valvatae Gürke by the combination of the usually deciduous (versus evergreen) condition and membranous (versus subcoriaceous) corolla lobes. Two series constitute sect. Styrax. Series Cyrta (Loureiro) P. W. Fritsch is distinguished from series Styrax by the presence of lateral (as well as terminal) inflorescences on at least some shoots (versus inflorescences strictly terminal) and glandular-denticulate to glandular-serrate (versus entire) leaf margins. Three of the species in the flora (S. americanus, S. grandifolius, and S. japonicus) belong to series Cyrta; the other two (S. platanifolius and S. redivivus) belong to series Styrax.

Phylogenetic studies support the eastern Asian endemic Huodendron (four species) as the closest relative of Styrax (P. W. Fritsch et al. 2001). It differs from Styrax in its apically two- to three-toothed (versus entire) connectives, usually distally divided (versus simple) style, and a fruiting calyx that is epicarpous one-third to two-thirds the length of the fruit (versus epicarpous only slightly beyond the fruit base).

Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada
Fls 5-merous; cal obconic, its lower half adherent to the ovary; cor-lobes equaling or (ours) longer than the tube, eventually spreading or recurved; stamens 10, inserted at the base of the cor, monadelphous at base; ovary 3-locular below, unilocular above; ovules few in each locule; fr dry, crustaceous, usually 1-seeded, often irregularly dehiscent, its lower third adherent to the persistent cal. 120, widespread.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Show all taxa || << 1 - 50 taxa >>
Styrax agrestis
Image of Styrax agrestis
Styrax americanus
Image of Styrax americanus
Styrax argenteum
Images
not available
Styrax argenteus
Image of Styrax argenteus
Styrax austromexicanus
Image of Styrax austromexicanus
Styrax benzoides
Images
not available
Styrax benzoin
Image of Styrax benzoin
Styrax californica
Image of Styrax californica
Styrax calvescens
Image of Styrax calvescens
Styrax cambodianus
Images
not available
Styrax camporum
Image of Styrax camporum
Styrax carranzae
Images
not available
Styrax confusus
Images
not available
Styrax conterminus
Image of Styrax conterminus
Styrax cordatus
Images
not available
Styrax dasyanthus
Image of Styrax dasyanthus
Styrax davillifolius
Images
not available
Styrax faberi
Image of Styrax faberi
Styrax ferrugineus
Image of Styrax ferrugineus
Styrax formosanus
Image of Styrax formosanus
Styrax foveolaria
Image of Styrax foveolaria
Styrax gentryi
Image of Styrax gentryi
Styrax glabratus
Image of Styrax glabratus
Styrax glabrescens
Image of Styrax glabrescens
Styrax grandifolium
Image of Styrax grandifolium
Styrax grandifolius
Image of Styrax grandifolius
Styrax griseus
Image of Styrax griseus
Styrax guianensis
Image of Styrax guianensis
Styrax hemsleyanus
Image of Styrax hemsleyanus
Styrax heterotrichus
Image of Styrax heterotrichus
Styrax hintoni
Image of Styrax hintoni
Styrax hookeri
Image of Styrax hookeri
Styrax jaliscana
Image of Styrax jaliscana
Styrax japonicus
Image of Styrax japonicus
Styrax leprosus
Image of Styrax leprosus
Styrax macrocalyx
Images
not available
Styrax magnus
Image of Styrax magnus
Styrax martii
Images
not available
Styrax nicaraguensis
Image of Styrax nicaraguensis
Styrax nui
Image of Styrax nui
Styrax nunezii
Image of Styrax nunezii
Styrax obassia
Image of Styrax obassia
Styrax obassis
Image of Styrax obassis
Styrax oblongus
Image of Styrax oblongus
Styrax obtusifolius
Image of Styrax obtusifolius
Styrax ochraceus
Image of Styrax ochraceus
Styrax odoratissimus
Image of Styrax odoratissimus
Styrax officinalis
Image of Styrax officinalis
Styrax panamensis
Image of Styrax panamensis
Styrax paulhousei
Images
not available
The National Science Foundation
Development supported by National Science Foundation Grants (DBI 9983132, BRC 0237418, DBI 0743827, DBI 0847966)
Powered by Symbiota