Bignoniaceae
Bignoniaceae, the trumpet creeper or catalpa family of flowering plants (order Lamiales). It contains about 110 genera and more than 800 species of trees, shrubs, and, most commonly, vines, chiefly of tropical America, tropical Africa, and the Indo-Malayan region. They form an important part of tropical forest ecosystems because of their numerous climbing vines.
Physical description
All members are woody, including trees, shrubs, and lianas. The family is characterized by oppositely paired, usually bicompound leaves and bell- or funnel-shaped bisexual flowers. The flowers feature a five-lobed calyx and corolla, two long and two short stamens arising from the corolla tube, and a pistil positioned on a disk above the attachment point of the other flower parts. There are often nectaries on the leaf, stem nodes, calyx, or ovary surface. The ovary consists of two fused ovule-bearing carpels enclosing two (rarely one) chambers that contain many ovules attached along the central axis. The seeds are usually flat and winged and are generally borne in a capsule fruit. A few genera have large leathery berries that may once have been dispersed by large mammals that are now extinct; elephants still act as dispersers for some African species.
Major genera and species
Among the important ornamental and useful members are the African tulip tree (Spathodea campanulata), calabash tree (Crescentia cujete), sausage tree (Kigelia africana), trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), cross vine (Bignonia capreolata), cat’s claw (Dolichandra unguis-cati), jacaranda (Jacaranda), flowering willow (Chilopsis linearis), and Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis). The genus Tabebuia has some 70 species known as trumpet trees, many of which produce excellent timber.
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A few members of the family are found in temperate regions, notably the catalpa tree (Catalpa), the trumpet creeper (Campsis), and the cross vine (Bignonia).
Schlegelia and Paulownia were formerly included in Bignoniaceae, but are now placed in their own families (Schlegeliaceae and Paulowniaceae, respectively) in Lamiales.
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