Name: Rubiaceae
Meaning of Name:
Rubiaceae, from Latin rubia (‘red madder dye’) + Latin -āceae (the feminine plural of -āceus, ‘resembling’, a suffix used to form the taxonomic family names of plants, algae, bacteria, and fungi)
Common Names:
The coffee, madder, or bedstraw family
Botanical Information:
The Rhamnaceae family comprises 580 genera and 14,100 species ranging from woody trees and shrubs to vines and herbs.
Quite a few species in this family contain chemicals which have economic value — examples include coffee for its caffeine, Chinchona sp. for quinine, Gardenia sp. for the highly gragrant flowers, and Rose madder for its red dye. Morinda citrifolia is the source of noni fruit and a yellow dye.
The defining botanical characterisitcs of Rubiaceae species concern leaf and flower morphologies particular to them.
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