© 2010 E. Schweizerbart sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart, Germany www.schweizerbart.de DOI: 10.1127/1869-6155/2010/0128-0016 1869-6155/2010/0128-0016 $ 05.25 Received January 15, 2009; in revised form August 6, 2009, accepted August 30, 2009 Plant Div. Evol. Vol. 128/3–4, 347–367 E Stuttgart, September 17, 2010 The family Myodocarpaceae: looking at the system from the standpoint of comparative carpology By Alexandra I. Konstantinova and Elena Yu. Yembaturova With 24 fgures and 3 tables Abstract Konstantinova, A.I. & Yembaturova, E.Yu.: The family Myodocarpaceae: looking at the system from the standpoint of comparative carpology. — Plant Div. Evol. 128: 347–367. 2010. — ISSN 1869- 6155. The fruit structure of fve Myodocarpus species and four Delarbrea species (Myodocarpaceae, Api- ales) was studied. It was found that the species studied share several fruit structure traits, such as: dimerous gynoecium, presence of peculiar secretory cavities (“oil vesicles”) and a free column sepa- rating from mericarp tissues. However, many distinctions in fruit structure of Myodocarpus and Delarbrea were also revealed: pericarp consistence (dry versus feshy), dispersal type (anemochory versus zoochory) and details of column separation mode, presence or absence of sclereids, groups of “hydrocyte parenchyma” cells and tannins in the pericarp as well as secretory canals location pattern. Myodocarpus and Delarbrea also show some differences in the seed coat structure. Data from com- parative carpology confrm that Myodocarpaceae comprises modern remnants of an ancient branch of Apiales evolutionary tree. Myodocarpus and Delarbrea, closely related to Araliaceae and Apiaceae, share some features of both families, although they are obviously distinct. Within Myodocarpaceae, Myodocarpus and Delarbrea represent different phylogenetic lineages and their fruit structure pro- vides evidence for that. Moreover, carpological data strongly support the presence of two groups within Myodocarpus. Keywords: Delarbrea, Myodocarpus, anatomy and morphology, fruit structure, dispersal pattern, phylogenetic lineages. Introduction Myodocarpus Brongn. & Gris and Delarbrea Vieill. are closely related genera distrib- uted mainly in New Caledonia. All ten (Lowry 1993) or eight (Frodin & Govaerts 2003) Myodocarpus species and four out of six known species of Delarbrea (Lowry 1986, Van Balgooy & Lowry 1993), as well as the monotypic genus Pseudosciadium Baill., recently included into Delarbrea as D. balansae (Baill.) Lowry & Plunkett (Lowry et al. 2004b) are endemic to this island with unique fora. Outside of New