''Elaeocarpus joga'' is a species of tree in the family

Elaeocarpaceae Elaeaocarpaceae is a family of flowering plants. The family contains approximately 615 species of trees and shrubs in 12 genera."Elaeocarpaceae" In: Klaus Kubitzki (ed.). ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' vol. VI. Springer-Verlag: Be ...

. It is native to the

Mariana Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

and

Palau Palau,, officially the Republic of Palau and historically ''Belau'', ''Palaos'' or ''Pelew'', is an island country and microstate in the western Pacific. The nation has approximately 340 islands and connects the western chain of the Caro ...

. It is a moderately-sized tree with blue-coloured, round, 1.5cm diameter fruit and leaves which turn bright red before they

senescence Senescence () or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. The word ''senescence'' can refer to either cellular senescence or to senescence of the whole organism. Organismal senescence inv ...

. In the

Chamorro language Chamorro (; ch, Finuʼ Chamorro, links=no (CNMI), (Guam)) is an Austronesian language spoken by about 58,000 people (about 25,800 people on Guam and about 32,200 in the rest of the Mariana Islands and elsewhere). It is the native and spoken ...

it is called ''yoga''.

Description

Merrill (see taxonomy) considered it to be a distinct species by virtue of its relatively small leaves with numerous

domatia A domatium (plural: domatia, from the Latin "domus", meaning home) is a tiny chamber that houses arthropods, produced by a plant. Ideally domatia differ from galls in that they are produced by the plant rather than being induced by their inhabi ...

upon them, and its relatively large flowers.

Taxonomy

''Elaeocarpus joga'' was first formally described by

Elmer Drew Merrill Elmer Drew Merrill (October 15, 1876 – February 25, 1956) was an American botanist and taxonomist. He spent more than twenty years in the Philippines where he became a recognized authority on the flora of the Asia-Pacific region. Through t ...

in 1914, but earlier described in the 1905 ''The Useful Plants of Guam'' by W. E. Safford. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

was collected by R. C. McGregor in

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

in 1911. In the 1971 article ''The Flora of Guam'', B. C. Stone recorded it as ''E. sphaericus'' (''sensu'' Schum., now ''E. angustifolius''), but in a 1979 article in the same journal updating the flora of the region, ''A geographical checklist of the Micronesian Dicotyledonae'', Fosberg ''et al''. did not accept this and continued to recognise ''E. joga''. Coode writes in 2010 that ''E. joga'', and its partial

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

''E. carolinensis'', need to be re-examined (it falls outside the region studied in his paper) to see if it truly is an independent species and not a synonym, and to which

section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sign ...

of the genus ''

Elaeocarpus ''Elaeocarpus'' is a genus of nearly five hundred species of flowering plants in the family Elaeocarpaceae native to the Western Indian Ocean, Tropical and Subtropical Asia, and the Pacific. Plants in the genus ''Elaeocarpus'' are trees or shrubs ...

'' it belongs. If it belongs to section ''Ganitrus'' like ''E. angustifolius'', this is a

biogeographic Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

oddity, because all other species appear to have evolved in the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago (Indonesian/Malay: , tgl, Kapuluang Malay) is the archipelago between mainland Indochina and Australia. It has also been called the " Malay world," "Nusantara", "East Indies", Indo-Australian Archipelago, Spices Archipe ...

. Merrill places it in the section ''Dicera''. Confusingly, Fosberg ''et al''. also state that ''E. grandis'', which may in turn be a synonym of ''E. angustifolius'', has been introduced to

. A 2013 thesis using

molecular phylogenetics Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

to study the ''Elaeocarpus'' in Australasia tested an old sample of ''E. carolinensis'' from the

Caroline Islands The Caroline Islands (or the Carolines) are a widely scattered archipelago of tiny islands in the western Pacific Ocean, to the north of New Guinea. Politically, they are divided between the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the centra ...

and found it generally nested within ''E. angustifolius'' in most sequences studied, but somewhat divergent in ''trnL-F''. It clearly belongs to section ''Ganitrus'', which was found nicely genetically

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

, despite the section's

circumscription Circumscription may refer to: *Circumscribed circle *Circumscription (logic) *Circumscription (taxonomy) * Circumscription theory, a theory about the origins of the political state in the history of human evolution proposed by the American anthrop ...

being based on Cooke's morphological studies alone.

Distribution

According to Fosberg ''et al''. the species is native to the

Marianas Islands The Mariana Islands (; also the Marianas; in Chamorro: ''Manislan Mariånas'') are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, betw ...

(Guam, Rota,

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

Pagan Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Judaism. ...

Alamagan Alamagan is an island in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean, north of Guguan, north of Saipan, and south of Pagan. It is currently uninhabited. History Alamagan was once settled by the Chamorros, who left behind archaeological ...

) and the nation of Palau (

Babeldaob Babeldaob (also Babelthuap) is the largest island in the island nation of the Republic of Palau. It is in the western Caroline Islands, and the second largest island (after Guam) in the Micronesia region of Oceania. Palau's capital, Ngerulmud, is ...

).Raulerson, L., & A. Rinehart. ''Trees and Shrubs of the Mariana Islands.'' 1992.

Uses

In the late 19th century some logging of this species took place on Guam. It yielded logs of up to 14m, although Safford was unaware of trees that size in 1905.

Gallery

File:Elaeocarpus joga flowers.jpg, Flowers

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15317381 joga Flora of the Mariana Islands Flora of Palau