Polygalaceae (Broché)

The family contains about 1000 species and is found throughout the world's tropical and temperate regions. The traditional view is that the Polygalaceae consists of about 17 genera, with Polygala by far the largest genus at over 500 species with a cosmopolitan distribution and centres of diversity in S and C America, N America and southern Africa. Amongst the other, uncontroversial Indochinese genera Salomonia and Xanthophyllum are Indo-Malayan, Epirixanthes is Indo-Malesian and Securidaca is a primarily S American genus with four species in Malesia and eastern Asia.