Endiandra Gillespiei

''Endiandra'' is a genus of about 126 species of plants, mainly trees, in the laurel family Lauraceae. They are commonly called "walnut" despite not being related to the Northern Hemisphere walnuts (''Juglans'' spp.) which are in the family Juglandaceae.

Ecology

Shrubs and trees with lauroid leaves mostly, with bisexual flowers, usually with a large edible berry ovoid or globose, and seated directly on the pedicel. The seeds are dispersed by animals and birds. They have a broad distribution across South East Asia, Australia and into the western Pacific Ocean.

Endiandra is a genus of evergreen trees belonging to the Laurel family, Lauraceae.
Fossils show that before glaciations, when the climate was more humid and mild, species were distributed more widely. They are distributed in Asia, from India to Indochina, China, Malaysia, Australia, and Pacific islands, with 38 species endemic to Australia.

In Australia, they are often used as screen trees due to the thick foliage of a number of their species. Quite a few of the Australian species are rare, such as ''Endiandra globosa'', ''Endiandra muelleri'' subsp. ''bracteata'' and ''Endiandra floydii''.

The drying of the area during the glaciations caused that Endiandra to retreat to the mildest climate refuges, including Oceanic and southern islands and wetter mountain area. With the end of the last glacial period, Endiandra recovered some of its former range. They are mostly relicts of a type of vegetation disappeared, which originally covered much of the mainland of Australia, South America, Antarctica, South Africa, North America and other lands when their climate were more humid and warm. Although warm Cloud forests disappeared during the glaciations, they re-colonized large areas every time the weather was favorable again. Most of the Cloud forests are believed to have retreated and advanced during successive geological eras, and their species adapted to warm and wet gradually retreated and advanced, replaced by more cold-tolerant or drought-tolerant sclerophyll plant communities. Many of the then existing species became extinct because they could not cross the barriers posed by new oceans, mountains and deserts, but others found refuge as species relict in coastal areas and Islands.

Some species are well adapted to Tropical dry or deciduous forests, including Monsoon forests and Dry Monsoon forest.
Some Endiandra present a convergent evolution due to ecological or physical drivers toward a similar solution, including analogous structures with species adapted to different environments, for example with plants adapted to Laurel forest habitat. These ''Endiandra'' resemble other genera in the family Lauraceae, and their leaves are lauroid type with berries eaten and dispersed mostly by birds. Others are even adapted to very wet media.

Some species are endangered and others have a very specialized ecological niche and consequently occupy small or specific areas. Although the majority of the species are the products of parapatric speciation, some groups have an ancient Gondwanan distribution and some groups responded to favourable climatic periods as opportunistic species and expanded across the available habitat, these last groups occur across wide distribution with close relatives and few species, indicating the recent divergence of these species.

Many species are having edible fruits. Some birds and bats that are specialised frugivores tend to eat the whole fruit and regurgitate seeds intact, which functions for Biological dispersal. Others swallow the fruit and pass the seed intact through the gut. An incomplete list of birds that rely heavily on the fruit for their diet include members of the families Cotingidae, Columbidae, Trogonidae, Turdidae, and Toucan. The fruits are an important food source for Palaeognathae highly dependent. Seed dispersal of various species in the genus is also carried out by fishes and big and small mammals as Pachyderms, Bovids, monkeys, arboreal rodents, porcupines, or possums.

Species

There were 126 accepted species as of May 2021.
These are:

*'' Endiandra acuminata''
*'' Endiandra aggregata''
*'' Endiandra albiramea''
*''Endiandra aneityensis''
*'' Endiandra anthropophagorum''
*''Endiandra archboldiana''
*'' Endiandra areolata''
*''Endiandra arfakensis''
*'' Endiandra asymmerrica''
*'' Endiandra baillonii''
*'' Endiandra beccariana''
*'' Endiandra bellendenkerana''
*'' Endiandra bessaphila''
*'' Endiandra brassii''
*'' Endiandra bullata''
*'' Endiandra carrii''
*'' Endiandra chartacea''
*'' Endiandra clavigera''
*'' Endiandra clemensii''
*'' Endiandra collinsii''
*'' Endiandra compressa'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra cooperana''
*'' Endiandra coriacea''
*'' Endiandra cowleyana''
*'' Endiandra crassiflora''
*'' Endiandra cuneata''
*'' Endiandra cyphellophora''
*'' Endiandra dichrophylla''
*'' Endiandra dielsiana''
*'' Endiandra discolor'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra djamuensis''
*'' Endiandra dolichocarpa''
*'' Endiandra elaeocarpa''
*'' Endiandra elongata''
*'' Endiandra engleriana''
*'' Endiandra euadenia''
*''Endiandra eusideroxylocarpa''
*'' Endiandra faceta''
*'' Endiandra ferruginea''
*'' Endiandra firma''
*'' Endiandra flavinervis''
*''Endiandra floydii'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra forbesii''
*'' Endiandra formicaria''
*'' Endiandra fulva''
*'' Endiandra gem''
*'' Endiandra gemopsis''
*'' Endiandra gillespiei''
*'' Endiandra glauca''
*''Endiandra globosa'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra grandifolia''
*'' Endiandra grayi''
*'' Endiandra hainanensis''
*'' Endiandra havelii''
*''Endiandra hayesii'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra holttumii''
*''Endiandra hypotephra'' – Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra immersa''
*'' Endiandra impressicosta''
*'' Endiandra insignis''
*'' Endiandra introrsa'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra invasiorum''
*''Endiandra javanica''
*'' Endiandra jonesii''
*'' Endiandra kingiana''
*'' Endiandra lanata''
*''Endiandra latifolia''
*'' Endiandra laxiflora''
*'' Endiandra lecardii''
*'' Endiandra ledermannii''
*'' Endiandra leptodendron''
*'' Endiandra limnophila''
*'' Endiandra longipedicellata''
*''Endiandra luteola''
*'' Endiandra macrophylla''
*''Endiandra macrostemon''
*'' Endiandra magnilimba''
*'' Endiandra maingayi''
*'' Endiandra merrillii''
*'' Endiandra microneura''
*''Endiandra microphylla''
*''Endiandra minutiflora''
*'' Endiandra × monothyra''
*'' Endiandra montana''
*'' Endiandra monticola''
*'' Endiandra muelleri'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra multiflora''
*''Endiandra neocaledonica''
*''Endiandra oblonga''
*'' Endiandra ochracea''
*'' Endiandra oviformis''
*''Endiandra palmerstonii''
*'' Endiandra papuana''
*'' Endiandra phaeocarpa''
*'' Endiandra pilosa''
*'' Endiandra polyneura''
*'' Endiandra poueboensis''
*'' Endiandra praeclara''
*'' Endiandra pubens'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra recurva''
*'' Endiandra reticulata''
*'' Endiandra rhizophoretum''
*'' Endiandra rigidior''
*'' Endiandra rubescens''
*'' Endiandra sankeyana''
*'' Endiandra schlechteri''
*'' Endiandra scrobiculata''
*''Endiandra sebertii''
*'' Endiandra sericea''
*'' Endiandra sideroxylon''
*''Endiandra sieberi'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*'' Endiandra sleumeri''
*'' Endiandra solomonensis''
*'' Endiandra spathulata''
*'' Endiandra sphaerica''
*'' Endiandra sulavesiana''
*'' Endiandra teschneri''
*'' Endiandra teschneriana''
*''Endiandra trichotosa''
*'' Endiandra tryphera''
*'' Endiandra versteeghii''
*'' Endiandra virens'' – New South Wales & Queensland, Australia
*''Endiandra whitmorei''
*''Endiandra wolfei''
*'' Endiandra wongawallanensis''
*''Endiandra wrayi''
*'' Endiandra xanthocarpa''
*'' Endiandra xylophylla''

File:Endiandra muelleri bracteata base.jpg, Endiandra muelleri bracteata trunk
File:Endiandra muelleri ssp bracteata leaves.jpg, Endiandra muelleri bracteata leaves
File:Endiandra globosa drupe.jpg, Large fruit of ''Endiandra globosa''
File:Endiandra introrsa small tree.jpg, Small tree of Endiandra introrsa

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5222137

Lauraceae genera
Flora of New South Wales
Flora of Queensland
Laurales of Australia