The Clethraceae are a small

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the order

Ericales The Ericales are a large and diverse order of flowering plants in the asterid group of the eudicots. Well-known and economically important members of this order include tea and ornamental camellias, persimmon, ebony, blueberry, cranberry, l ...

, composed of two genera, '' Clethra'' and '' Purdiaea'', with approximately 75 species. They are native to warm temperate to tropical regions of

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

and the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

, with one species also on

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

. In the past, most botanists included only ''Clethra'' in the family, but recent research has shown ''Purdiaea'', previously placed in the closely related family

Cyrillaceae The Cyrillaceae are a small family of flowering plants in the order Ericales, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The family comprises two genera, '' Cliftonia'' and '' Cyrilla'', each containing a single species, ''Clif ...

, is more closely allied to ''Clethra''.

References

{{Authority control Ericales families Ericales Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Klotzsch