Phytogeographical Notes on Indian Connaraceae

The family Connaraceae comprises of 24 genera and 385 species (Schellenberg, 1938) and is distributed exclusively in the tropics of the World. Africa is very well represented by 12 genera and 154 species. Asia and America are not so rich but having 9 genera and 142 species and 5 genera and 89 species respectively. The members of the family are largely restricted to lowland rain forests. Leenhouts (1958) led to a considerable reduction in the number of species and also substantial reduction of genera. His revision led to reduction of genera and species to 9 genera and 142 species for Asia and adjacent areas, 6 genera and 36 species for Malaysia, and 10 genera and 49 species for Africa. Forero (1983) estimated 101 species under 5 genera for America. Mabberley (1997) considers 180 species from 12 genera all over the world. India is represented by 4 genera, 15 species including 1 subspecies and 2 varieties (Mondal, 2000). The family was first designated by Robert Brown (1818) with 3 genera from Terebintaceae of de Jussieu (1789), a group of Genera Tbrebinacies affinia. Since then many more taxa have been added to this family and their distributional area have been revalued. Present paper deals with the distribution of Indian members of Connaraceae with latest nomenclature. The extension of Indian elements outside the country and the influcnec exerted by foreign taxa are presented. Fossil remains so far reported are also discussed. The paper will be very much helpful in better understanding of the world distribution pattern of the family and also to correlate the fossil remains and impressions.