Flacourtiaceae - Definition and Overview

Flacourtiaceae, or the Indian plum family, is a family of plants within the order Violales. It includes 89 genera and more than 800 living species. The genus Homalium alone has 200 species, while Casearia brings 160 more.

This is a widespread family, with plants both tropical and subtropical. A small number of species can also be found in temperate regions.

Familiar plants from this family include the chaulmoogra, the Indian plum and the several species of xylosma. Flacourtia is the type genus of this family. Its species include Flacourtia indica, known as the governor's plum or ramontchi, which is useful for its fruit, wood and medicine.

It is often complained that Arthur Cronquist had a habit of dumping all the left-over members of an order -- the "scraps" that did not clearly fit into any one family in that order with closely related genera -- into a single catch-all family, or "garbage pail" family. Flacourtiaceae seems to be the family to fill this role for the order of Violales within Cronquist's system. The tropical, subtropical and temperate species have few defining common threads, and Flacourtiaceae is quite diverse for a family.

If human use and economic importance of these plants is what is analyzed, a few recurring themes in use occur, such as the large number that provide popularly eaten fruits, provide wood, or are used as hedge plants (not only the xylosma but the kei apple (Dovyalis caffra) is popular in hedging).