In 1753 Linnaeus described the genus Burmannia, with two distinct species: Burmannia disticha from Sri Lanka and Burmannia biflora from the USA. He named this new genus after Prof. J. Burman, a medical doctor and professor at the Botanical Garden of Amsterdam. More than 70 years later, Blume united Burmannia with the genera Gymnosiphon and Gonyanthes (now Burmannia) in a new family, Burmanniaceae.

Since Linnaeus' description expeditions all over the world brought new and sometimes very strange species from the dark hearts of the tropical and sub-tropical rain-forests. As a result Burmannianiceae now comprise more than 130 different species across 13 genera and new discoveries are made almost every year.

As members of the endangered tropical rain-forests of the world, extinction is a constant threat for most Burmanniaceae. Protection of their natural habitats is essential for their conservation: Due to their complex and little known association with mycorrhizal fungi it is impossible to grow the plants in greenhouses. The continuous exploitation of tropical forests already made victims. Thismia lauriana, to give just one example, was found in Borneo in 1995 between the roots of large tree. Only two hours after its discovery, the tree and the surrounding forest was lodged and another species was lost forever...

With respect to systematic relationships, Burmanniaceae were traditionally placed within the orders Orchidales or Liliales. In recent molecular analyses, however, Burmanniaceae are sister to the Dioscoreaceae (the yam family). Together with the Nartheciaceae these three families now form the order Dioscoreales.

Vincent Merckx holds a personal grant for this project from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT Vlaanderen, no. 31536). Peter Schols is a postdoctoral fellow of the K.U.Leuven (PDM/04/136).

Copyright © 2005 Vincent Merckx and Peter Schols. Lab of Plant Systematics, K.U.Leuven. All rights reserved.

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