''Aspidostemon'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s belonging to the family

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant family that includes the true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genera worldwide (Christenhusz & Byng 2016 ). They are dicotyledons, and occur ma ...

. It occurs in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

Taxonomy

The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie'' 109 (1): 74 in 1987. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

is ''

Aspidostemon perrieri ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschicht ...

'' ( Danguy) Rohwer. The number of collections available is not large. The identification was done at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Description

They are shrubs or

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s up to 25 m high,

hermaphrodite In reproductive biology, a hermaphrodite () is an organism that has both kinds of reproductive organs and can produce both gametes associated with male and female sexes. Many Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic groups of animals (mostly invertebrate ...

s. The leaves are entire, elliptical or narrowly elliptical. The fruit is a berry-like drupe dispersed mostly by birds. ''Aspidostemon'' species are no exception among the Lauraceae; they are trees with small flowers, hard to detect and collect and often overlooked or ignored when plants easier to collect or with showier flowers are at hand. ''Aspidostemon'' is characterized by its opposite leaves, flowers with three or six stamens (compared to 9 in ''Cryptocarya''), and a fruit which is completely enclosed in the enlarged hypanthium with persistent floral parts attached to the top of the fruit. When the genus was described by Rohwer & Richter in 1987, they recognized 11 species, but today 28 species are accepted. Some species are endangered or almost extinct. Based on a combination of wood anatomical, vegetative, and floral characters, noted by such earlier botanists as Kostermans in 1957, the species of genus ''Aspidostemon'' were placed formerly as belonging to subgenera '' Hexanthera'' and '' Trianthera'' of''

Cryptocarya ''Cryptocarya'' is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the laurel family, Lauraceae. The genus includes more than 350 species, distributed through the Neotropical, Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms. Overview The genus inc ...

''.

Ecology

''Aspidostemon'' species have the large trees characteristic of rainforest in

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...

laurel forest Laurel forest, also called laurisilva or laurissilva, is a type of subtropical forest found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. The forest is characterized by broadleaf tree species with evergreen, glossy and elo ...

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s in

and nearby islands and restricted to this region. They belong to an ancient isolated Gondwanian element of

Laurales The Laurales are an order of flowering plants. They are magnoliids, related to the Magnoliales. The order includes about 2500-2800 species from 85-90 genera, which comprise seven families of trees and shrubs. Most of the species are tropical and ...

. A great number of species are in danger of extinction due to

overexploitation Overexploitation, also called overharvesting, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to replenish. The term app ...

timber extraction Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

and

loss of habitat Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

. They are leafy canopy trees with erect or spreading branches. They grow to heights of up to 25 m, or some species to 40 m. Their stout

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Computing * Trunk (software), in rev ...

s are up to 1 m in diameter. The genus is easily recognizable by its bark which is soft and cheese-like. The thick, leathery leaves are dark green. The leaves are glossy laurel type. The leaves of ''Aspidostemon'' species are not infrequently acuminate, with an acumen folded into a short tube. On opening a few of these inrolled apices, egg cases similar to those found in leaf domatia are found; epiphyllous hepatics were also found. These inrolled apices apparently function as domatia and shelter mites that clean the leaves. The fruit is an important food source for birds, usually from specialized genera. Birds eat the whole fruit and regurgitate or defecate the seeds intact, expanding the seeds in the best conditions for germination ( ornitochory). In some species,

seed dispersal In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, ...

is carried out by

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

Accepted species

29 species are currently accepted:''Aspidostemon'' Rohwer & H.G.Richt.
''Plants of the World Online'', Kew Science. Accessed 28 August 2022. *''

Aspidostemon andohahelensis ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschicht ...

'' van der Werff *''

Aspidostemon antongilensis ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschicht ...

'' van der Werff *'' Aspidostemon apiculatus'' van der Werff *''

Aspidostemon capuronii ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschicht ...

'' (Danguy) Rohwer *'' Aspidostemon reticulatus'' van der Werff *'' Aspidostemon synandra'' Rohwer *'' Aspidostemon trianthera'' (Kosterm.) Rohwer *'' Aspidostemon trichandra'' van der Werff

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4808044 Lauraceae genera Endemic flora of Madagascar