Talk:Theaceae

Either the genera from Ternstroemiaceae should be listed on this page, or a real page (i.e., one that doesn't just link back to Theaceae) should be created to contain them.N. Pharris (talk) 22:22, 8 June 2008 (UTC)

Section removed

I've removed the following text that was added because it needs *major pruning* and is unsourced, and because some very similar material was recently added to Phyllanthus and to Phyllanthaceae. The wiki has thus become cluttered with material or dubious origin that may not be particularly informative about the family in question.

Defense mechanisms occur among members of Theaceae to protect and defend the plant. The adaptations followed a long evolutionary journey which has led to produce many defensive specializations, as substances with an aromatic pungent smell, deterrent even nauseatingly or alkaloids irritant or toxic that repel or poison many herbivorous organisms.

Some species are endangered and others have a very specialized ecological niche and consequently occupy small areas. Although the majority of the species are the products of parapatric speciation, some groups responded to favourable climatic periods as opportunistic species and expanded across the available habitat, occur across wide distribution with close relatives and few species, indicating the recent divergence of these species. Many of these extant group of species are relatively young with drastic increases in speciation.

Some Theaceae present a convergent evolution due to ecological or physical drivers toward a similar solution, including analogous structures with species adapted to Laurel forest habitat. These Theaceae are resembling lauroide trees as Lauraceae trees, and their leaves are lauroide type with berries eaten and dispersed mostly by birds.

Some birds and bats that are specialised frugivores tend to eat the whole fruit and regurgitate seeds intact, which functions for Biological dispersal. Others swallow the fruit and pass the seed intact through the gut. An incomplete list of birds that rely heavily on the fruit for their diet include members of the families Cotingidae, Columbidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, and Rhamphastidae. Seed dispersal of various species in the genus is also carried out by mammals as deers, monkeys, arboreal rodents, porcupines, opossums and fishes.

Nadiatalent (talk) 12:30, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

This article is too much small.

This article is very small, please someone must add information of its biodiversity and the influence of these plants in the habitats where they are present. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.42.105.207 (talk) 03:13, 14 October 2012 (UTC)

The first task is to find good reliable sources and add carefully formatted citations that are not subject to link rot. Once those sources are available to anyone who reads the page, good information can be added here. Please see the section above for an example of the disaster that can occur when people add indiscriminately. Actually, I doubt that "the influence of these plants in the habitats where they are present" has been the subject of sufficient ecological studies that anything could be said with certainty. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 13:08, 15 October 2012 (UTC)