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Berberidopsidaceae (Veldkamp) Takht.

Coralplant Family

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Family Overview

Berberidopsidaceae (Veldkamp) Takht., the Coralplant Family, is a remarkably small Southern Hemisphere family in the order Berberidopsidales. It contains two accepted genera and four living species: three coralplants in Berberidopsis, distributed between Chile and eastern Australia, and the monotypic Australian redberry-vine genus Streptothamnus. Most members are woody climbers or scrambling shrubs of humid forest, although Berberidopsis granitica, the mountain coralplant, is a low stoloniferous, prostrate-to-ascending shrub of the central Chilean Andes. Molecular evidence places Berberidopsidaceae as the sister family of Aextoxicaceae, whose sole species is the very different-looking South American forest tree Aextoxicon punctatum (Menegoz et al. 2024; Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2026).

The family is held together by combinations of wood, seed, vegetative, and reproductive characters rather than by an immediately obvious outward appearance. Leaves are simple and alternate, stipules are absent, and the fruits are indehiscent and berry-like. The flowers, however, differ dramatically between the two genera. Coralplants (Berberidopsis) have predominantly spiral flowers in which numerous tepals grade from outer sepaloid to inner petaloid structures, accompanied by a conspicuous persistent extrastaminal disk and comparatively few stamens. Redberry-vine (Streptothamnus) instead possesses a much more conventionally cyclic flower, usually with five persistent sepals, five deciduous petals, no disk, and numerous stamens. These differences are substantial enough that the relationship between the genera remained uncertain even though their anatomy revealed important similarities (Veldkamp 1984; Baas 1984; van Heel 1984).

From Flacourtiaceae to an isolated family

The taxonomic history of the Coralplant Family reflects how difficult these plants were to place morphologically. Joseph Dalton Hooker established Berberidopsis in 1862, while Ferdinand von Mueller described Streptothamnus in Australia the same year. Both were later accommodated within the historically broad and heterogeneous Flacourtiaceae, where their unusual wood, pollen, seed structure, and floral morphology increasingly marked them as anomalous members. The resemblance suggested by the name Berberidopsis, literally something Berberis-like, is therefore superficial rather than evidence of close relationship to modern Berberidaceae.

A decisive reappraisal came in 1984. Veldkamp showed that the Australian plant then known as Streptothamnus beckleri shared the essential floral and anatomical organization of Berberidopsis corallina rather than that of S. moorei, and transferred it to Berberidopsis. Seed and pollen evidence from van Heel and vegetative anatomy from Baas independently supported the realignment while also supporting the distinction of Streptothamnus. Veldkamp validly published Berberidopsideae at tribal rank in 1984, and Takhtajan established Berberidopsidaceae at family rank in 1985 (Veldkamp 1984; van Heel 1984; Baas 1984; International Plant Names Index 2026).

Molecular phylogenetics subsequently revealed an even more surprising relationship: Berberidopsidaceae is most closely allied not with the families that historically surrounded it, but with Aextoxicaceae. These two small southern families now constitute Berberidopsidales. The most comprehensive analysis to date, using both nuclear and chloroplast loci and sampling every living species in the order, strongly recovered Berberidopsidaceae as monophyletic and redberry-vine (Streptothamnus) as sister to a monophyletic coralplant genus (Berberidopsis). Menegoz et al. (2024) estimated the crown age of Berberidopsidaceae at about 45.8 million years, although the broad credible interval and lack of a confidently attributable fossil calibration make the exact date provisional.

A Southern Hemisphere distribution that is not simply Gondwanan

The family’s modern geography initially invites a familiar explanation. Berberidopsidaceae occurs only in southern South America and eastern Australia, regions rich in lineages whose distributions preserve traces of Gondwanan history. The internal history of Berberidopsis, however, tells a different story. Australian B. beckleri, the tape-vine coralplant, is sister to a Chilean lineage containing the red coralplant (B. corallina) and mountain coralplant (B. granitica), but molecular dating places the separation of the Australian and Chilean branches at only about 9.8 million years ago. That is far younger than the breakup of Gondwana. Menegoz et al. (2024) therefore favored long-distance transoceanic dispersal rather than ancient continental vicariance for the living disjunction within Berberidopsis.

The ecological contrast is nearly as striking as the geographic one. Tape-vine coralplant inhabits eastern Australian rainforest, whereas the two Chilean species occupy different climatic space in southern South America. Mountain coralplant is especially distinctive, growing in a montane Andean environment and possessing a compact stoloniferous habit unlike the climbing growth form typical of the other living members of the family. Its discovery expanded not only the known species diversity of Berberidopsidaceae but also its recognized ecological and structural diversity (Menegoz et al. 2024).

Horticultural and Agricultural Uses

Horticulture within the Coralplant Family is dominated by the red coralplant, Berberidopsis corallina. Its pendent crimson flowers and evergreen foliage have made it a prized but relatively uncommon ornamental climber in mild oceanic climates. The Royal Horticultural Society recommends a sheltered, partly to fully shaded site in fertile, acidic, well-drained soil, protected from drying cold winds and severe winter exposure. The Australian tape-vine coralplant is much rarer in cultivation, while mountain coralplant has no comparable horticultural tradition (Royal Horticultural Society 2026).

Red coralplant also has cultural importance in Chile. Its long flexible stems have traditionally supplied fiber for handicrafts. That use is locally significant because many surviving populations occur in remnant native forest already subject to fragmentation and pressure from plantation forestry and grazing (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile 2026a).

Conservation Issues

The most acute conservation concerns in Berberidopsidaceae occur in its Chilean branch. Red coralplant is officially classified as Endangered in Chile, where surviving populations are fragmented and threatened by loss and degradation of native forest, expansion of Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus plantations, and grazing. Its traditional use as a source of fiber adds a locally important management consideration to the wider problem of habitat loss (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile 2026a).

Mountain coralplant is still more precarious. It is known from one locality near San Fabián de Alico in the Ñuble Andes. Chile classified it as Critically Endangered under criteria reflecting its extremely restricted geographic range and continuing habitat deterioration. The assessment became official through the twentieth species-classification process, finalized by a decree published in March 2026 (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile 2026b; Menegoz et al. 2024).

The Australian species are not currently documented as facing the same degree of immediate threat, but they remain geographically restricted rainforest lineages. With only four living species in the entire family, the loss of any one would remove a substantial portion of its surviving evolutionary diversity.

Accepted Genera
Berberidopsis Hook.f. (1862) Coralplant
Streptothamnus F.Muell. (1862) Redberry-vine

Additional Information

References and Further Reading

Baas P (1984) Vegetative anatomy and taxonomy of Berberidopsis and Streptothamnus (Flacourtiaceae). Blumea 30(1): 39–44.

Carlquist S (2003) Wood anatomy of Aextoxicaceae and Berberidopsidaceae is compatible with their inclusion in Berberidopsidales. Systematic Botany 28(2): 317–325. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3094000

Hooker JD (1862) Berberidopsis corallina. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 88: Plate 5343.

International Plant Names Index (2026) Berberidopsidaceae (Veldkamp) Takht. IPNI, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. https://www.ipni.org/n/985458-1. Accessed 17 October 2026.

Menegoz K, Villarroel AE & Lavandero N (2024) Phylogeny of Berberidopsidales based on nuclear and chloroplast loci, with the description of a new species of Berberidopsis endemic to Central Chile. Taxon 73: 800–817. https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.13170

Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile (2026a) Ficha de especie: Berberidopsis corallina Hook.f. Plataforma SIMBIO. https://simbio.mma.gob.cl/Especies/Details/11380. Accessed 17 October 2026.

Ministerio del Medio Ambiente de Chile (2026b) Listado final del 20º Proceso de Clasificación de Especies; oficializado por Decreto Supremo Nº 54/2025, publicado el 5 de marzo de 2026. https://clasificacionespecies.mma.gob.cl/procesos-de-clasificacion/20o-proceso-de-clasificacion-de-especies-2023/listado-final-20o-proceso-de-clasificacion/. Accessed 17 October 2026.

Mueller F von (1862) Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae 3: 27–28.

Ronse De Craene LP (2004) Floral development of Berberidopsis corallina: A crucial link in the evolution of flowers in the core eudicots. Annals of Botany 94: 741–751. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mch199

Ronse De Craene LP (2017) Floral development of Berberidopsis beckleri: Can an additional species of the Berberidopsidaceae add evidence to floral evolution in the core eudicots? Annals of Botany 119: 599–610. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcw241

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2026) Plants of the World Online: Berberidopsidaceae (Veldkamp) Takht. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, UK. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:985458-1. Accessed 17 October 2026.

Royal Horticultural Society (2026) Berberidopsis corallina. RHS Plant Profile. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/2075/berberidopsis-corallina/details. Accessed 17 October 2026.

van Heel WA (1984) Flowers and fruits in Flacourtiaceae. V. The seed anatomy and pollen morphology of Berberidopsis and Streptothamnus. Blumea 30(1): 31–37.

Veldkamp JF (1984) Berberidopsis (Flacourtiaceae) in Australia. Blumea 30(1): 21–29. https://repository.naturalis.nl/document/565997