Family Caprifoliaceae Juss. as Documented from the Forests of Western Ghats

Abstract

Caprifoliaceae Juss., popular as the family of "Honeysuckles", is a dicotyledonous family (Magnoliopsida) composed mostly of shrubs, vines and a few herbs having typically opposite leaves and flowers with tubular-funnel or bell-shaped corolla with five outwardly spreading lobes and five epipetalous stamens; 3-5 carpels having inferior ovary with more than one ovule in each of its locules and drupe or berry type of fruit. The Honeysuckles give us a lot of aesthetic pleasure with their beautiful flowers and showy fruits. They offer their ripe berries as food to different types of birds and attract insects with their extra-floral nectaries. Besides these, they feed the herbivores with their foliage. Considering the importance of ecological services rendered by the species of Caprifoliaceae in the montane forests and the fact that many species of this family have been perceiving threats of extinction, the present work was taken up to document the taxon from South Indian Hills (Western Ghats) since 2012. The study was initiated with a scrutiny of literature having relevance to various taxonomic aspects of Caprifoliaceae collaterally with documentation of authentic specimens preserved in different Herbaria in India. After knowing that Caprifoliaceae is a cold loving taxon with distribution mostly in the temperate regions of South Indian Hills, field surveys were accordingly scheduled.