''Gomortega keule'' (syn. ''G. nitida''; Spanish names ''keule'', ''queule'', and ''hualhual'') is a tree native to Chile. It is the sole species of the genus ''Gomortega'' and, according to the APG IV system of 2016 (unchanged from the APG systems of

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

), of the monotypic family Gomortegaceae, assigned to the order

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 ...

in the clade magnoliids.

Description

Evergreen trees, aromatic, gray bark with shallow longitudinal fissures. The leaves are petiolate, simple, entire, obovate to lanceolate, coriaceous. The stems have unilacunar nodes and with two foliar traces. The branches are quadrangular. The edible fruit is a uni or trilocular yellow drupe, usually with 1 (-2) seeds, fleshy mesocarp, pleasant, stony endocarp. There are 1-2 seeds per fruit, with abundant, oily endosperm, large embryo, dicotyledonous. The chromosome number is n = 21, 2n = 42.

Distribution

''Gomortega keule'' grows only in a very narrow habitat range in coastal

Central Chile Central Chile (''Zona central'') is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It is home to a majority of the Chilean population and includes the three largest metropolitan areas—Santiago, Valparaís ...

, including the

Maulino forest Maulino forest ( es, Bosque Maulino) is a forest type naturally growing in the Chilean Coast Range of Central Chile from latitude 35°55 to 36°20 S. The chief tree species is ''Nothofagus glauca''. Other tree species include '' Nothofagus leonii'' ...

and parts of the Chilean matorral.C. Michael Hogan & World Wildlife Fund. 2013
Chilean matorral. ed. M.McGinley. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment
Washington DC It is a characterisc tree species of the

alongside '' Nothofagus glauca'', ''

Nothofagus leonii ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Gui ...

'' and '' Nothofagus alessandri''. The species is endangered of extinction due to overharvesting, clearing the forests where it is found for agriculture and silviculture. ''Gomortega keule'' produces a yellow edible sweet fruit about in diameter, harvested for making a kind of marmalade.

References

External links

* *

The species

*''Gomortega keule'' in Encyclopedia of the Chilean Flora
Information on ''Gomortega keule''
(in Spanish) * Listed as Endangered (EN A1cd v2.3)

(in Spanish)
Project developed in Chile on ''Gomortega keule''
(in Spanish)

(in Spanish)

The family