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Apocynaceae, the dogbane family, is broadly circumscribed to include the former Asclepiadaceae, or milkweed family, and includes about 400 genera and 4,555 species. This realignment is based on DNA sequencing as well as morphological similarities, such as their milky sap and highly modified gynoecium (female flower structure). These female floral adaptations include an often five-sided style head and two carpels generally free from each other (unusual among the asterids), except for being joined near their apex by the styles or stigmas. In fruit the carpels often develop as one or two separate follicles that split open and release tufted seeds, such as the milkweeds do. Other members of the family produce capsules with arillate seeds or else berrylike fruits that are ingested by animal dispersers.

Nearly all members of this family are poisonous, and many species are used medicinally because of the presence of cardiac glycosides and various alkaloids. Catharanthus (Madagascar, or rosy, periwinkle) is a source of drugs for treatment of leukemia. Rauvolfia produces reserpine, which is used for hypertension and for mental illnesses. The common name for Apocynum, dogbane, refers to its effects on animals. Even the commonly cultivated tropical shrub Nerium (oleander) is poisonous and has caused deaths in infants who ingested as little as a single leaf.

Within Apocynaceae the milkweeds are treated as a strongly supported subfamily (Asclepiadoideae) characterized by having pollen agglutinated into packets (pollinia) and specialized appendages of the stamens that store nectar and assist in pollination. There is usually an extra set of petal-like structures (corona) between the corolla and the stamens. The anthers unite into a sheath that adheres to the thickened style. A yoke-shaped structure called the translator attaches to the pollinia of two different adjacent anthers. The translators become entangled on the legs of visiting insects so that the departing insect carries a pair of pollinia joined by the translator. When the insect visits the next flower, the pollinia may be transferred to the stigmas, which are borne on the stylehead and alternate with the anthers. This method of pollination is complex, but, when successful, the great numbers of pollen grains transferred result in the production of many seeds.

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Many members of Apocynaceae are ornamental. Within the milkweed group these include Asclepias tuberosa (butterfly weed) and Hoya carnosa (waxplant). There are also numerous cultivars of the cactuslike Stapelia (carrion flower), an African succulent known for its foul-smelling petals. In the dogbane group Vinca (periwinkle) is a common ornamental groundcover in temperate areas, and tropical ornamentals include Allamanda, Carissa (Natal plum), and Plumeria (frangipani).

The association of the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) with milkweed plants of the genus Asclepias illustrates the continuing evolution of adaptations in the battle between plants and predators. Although cardenolides in the latex of the milkweeds are highly poisonous, the monarch caterpillar is able to eat the plant and concentrate the poison in the wings and abdomen of the adult, where it does not interfere with metabolism. In fact, the cardenolides give the caterpillar and butterfly a nauseating taste, causing them to be avoided by birds that might otherwise eat them. Different species of milkweed produce different kinds and amounts of the poisonous cardenolides, conferring greater or lesser protection to the caterpillars and butterflies. Some birds have learned to pluck out the internal organs of the butterflies to avoid the highly poisonous wings.

Loganiaceae

Loganiaceae has 13 genera and 420 species, most of which are tropical. The majority of its members have opposite, simple leaves with sheaths, stipules, or interpetiolar lines, and they characteristically have colleters (multicellular fingerlike glands at the inside base of the leaves, bracts, or calyx). The typically asterid flowers have four or five lobes, petals fused into a corolla tube, sepals usually basally joined, and the same number of stamens as petals. The ovary is superior in most members, with two carpels and locules, and axile placentation. Fruits vary from capsules to fleshy drupes. The three main genera of Loganiaceae are Strychnos, Geniostoma, and Mitrasacme. The remaining genera are Gardneria, Neuburgia, Antonia, Bonyunia, Norrisia, Usteria, Spigelia, Logania, Labordia, and Mitreola; these groups generally are small and economically insignificant.

The most economically important genus of Loganiaceae is Strychnos (also the largest, with about 190 species), which produces several poisonous indole alkaloids such as strychnine and brucine. The South American liana Strychnos toxifera is a source of curare, a mixture of plant extracts used as a fish or rodent poison and as a source of pharmacological products. Alkaloids produced by Strychnos ignatii, the Saint Ignatius’s bean of the Philippines, have been used to treat cholera. Strychnos spinosa (Natal orange) of southern Africa produces a yellow berry with edible pulp. Some species of Spigelia are known to be highly poisonous.

Gelsemiaceae

Formerly placed in Loganiaceae, Gelsemiaceae is a small family of two shrubby or lianoid genera and 11 species. Gelsemium elegans (allspice jasmine) from Indomalesia contains powerful alkaloids that have been used in murder and suicide. The sweetly scented Gelsemium sempervirens (Carolina, or yellow, jessamine) is a highly poisonous vine in the southern United States that is also cultivated and has been used medicinally for migraines. The second genus, Mostuea, has a transoceanic distribution with one American and seven African species.