Combretaceae R. Brown. Common name: Combretum Family.

Key to Combretaceae

A family of about 11-14 genera and 500 species, trees and shrubs, of the neotropics and paleotropics.

ID notes: Combretaceae is among three families of plants that broadly include "mangroves." Mangrove is a term sometimes loosely representing an alliance of coastal hardwood shrubs and trees often dominant or co-dominant in coastal and riverine brackish or saline wetlands. Species in the Combretaceae can be distinguished by the presence of variously-shaped drupes, and pneumatophores often absent (except Langucularia which CAN have a mix of prop roots and pneumatophores and Lumnitzera with pneumatophores) vs. the conspicuously tall prop roots of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle, Rhizophoraceae), and fruit as drupes (vs. Avicennia germinans, Acanthaceae, with large flattened capsules and only with abundant finger-like pneumatophores). From wettest and most saline to drier and least saline is typically: Rhizophora, Avicennia, Langucularia, and Conocarpus, although all four can often co-occur in varying abundance.

References: Judd (2021) In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (2021); Stace (2007) In Kubitzki, Bayer, & Stevens (2007). Show full citations.

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