Rubiaceae
Family of flowering plants
Summary
Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules and sympetalous actinomorphic flowers. The family contains about 14,200 species in about 615 genera, which makes it the fourth-largest angiosperm family by number of species. Rubiaceae has a cosmopolitan distribution; however, the largest species diversity is concentrated in the tropics and subtropics. Economically important genera include Coffea, the source of coffee; Cinchona, the source of the antimalarial alkaloid quinine; ornamental cultivars ; and historically some dye plants.
Originally created by Unknown
5/29/2002, 6:14:12 AM
Modified
5/18/2026, 8:51:21 PM
Recent revisions
Robot: fix [[WP:DPL|links]] to [[WP:D|disambiguation]] page [[Family (disambiguation)]]
/* Etymology */Moved etymology content here
/* Systematics */Moving etymology to its own section
/* Ecology */Added Etymology section
/* Systematics */Added citation
/* Systematics */ Changed list to bulleted format
Restored revision 1341463774 by [[Special:Contributions/Orbicule|Orbicule]] ([[User talk:Orbicule|talk]]): Reference doesn't mention Venezuela or Cuba. Possibly unsuitable reference being a blog or commercial in nature. Has now been added to numerous coffee articles.
added reference
This change seems a personal opinion.
Systematics section reverted to version from 8 May 2024. The two-subfamily classification added by the 23 May 2024 update is, as presented, nonsensical. Subfamily Cinchonoideae is just deleted without its taxa being reallocated to the other two subfamilies or any other group.
/* Rubioideae */ order
/* Dialypetalanthoideae */ Vanguerieae 28 genera
/* Fruit biology */ citation provided
/* References */ [[User:Monkbot/task 21: Replace page(s) with article-number|Monkbot/task 21: Replace page(s) with article-number]];
/* Genera */
/* References */
[[Wikipedia:OABOT|Open access bot]]: url-access=subscription updated in citation with #oabot.
restored {{cn}} template, moved new ref to the appropriate postion
