LOGANIACEAE

family of flowering plants in the order Gentianales, containing about 21 genera with more than 500 species of woody vines, shrubs, or trees native primarily to tropical areas of the world. Members of the family bear leaflike appendages at the base of the leafstalks and have terminal flower clusters. The ring of petals on each flower has four or five overlapping lobes. The fruit is a capsule containing winged or wingless seeds. Carolina, or yellow, jasmine, or jessamine (Gelsemium sempervirens), an ornamental evergreen vine, bears fragrant clusters of yellow flowers that are pinkish orange behind the petal lobes. Several species of butterfly bush (q.v.; Buddleia) and pinkroot (Spigelia marilandica) also are cultivated as ornamentals. Poisonous alkaloids found in the bark and seeds of plants of the genus Strychnos are used in arrow poisons such as curare (q.v.) and in drugs that stimulate the heart and central nervous system. Buddleia is now considered by many botanists to belong to the family Buddlejaceae, and Spigelia and Strychnos occasionally are placed in the families Spigeliaceae and Strychnaceae respectively.