''Oreocallis'' is a South American plant genus in the family
Proteaceae
The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Pro ...
. There is only one species, ''Oreocallis grandiflora'', which is native to mountainous regions in
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
and
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
.
Previously, the genus was considered to have several species on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, however the four Australasian species were reclassified in the genus ''
Alloxylon
''Alloxylon'' is a genus of four species in the family Proteaceae of mainly small to medium-sized trees. They are native to the eastern coast of Australia, with one species, '' A. brachycarpum'' found in New Guinea and the Aru Islands. The genus ...
''.
The genus was originally defined by
Robert Brown in 1810 to contain the Australian species now classified elsewhere, while the two recognised South American species were placed in ''Embothrium'' at the time. A reclassification by Dutch botanist
Hermann Otto Sleumer
Hermann Otto Sleumer (February 21, 1906 in Saarbrücken – October 1, 1993 in Oegstgeest) was a Dutch botanist of German birth. The plant genera ''Sleumerodendron'' Virot (Proteaceae) and ''Sleumeria'' Utteridge, Nagam. & Teo (Icacinaceae
The I ...
in 1954 saw these species transferred into ''Oreocallis''.
A second species ''O. mucronata'', has been reclassified as conspecific with ''O. grandiflora''. Some recent sources recognize both species.
[2. Oreocallis R. Br.](_blank)
Ulloa Ulloa, C. & P. M. Jørgensen (2004 and onwards), ''Árboles y arbustos de los Andes del Ecuador''
Etymology
The genus' name is derived from the
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
words ''or(e)os'' "mountain", and ''kalli-'' "beauty".
Description
The species is a tree or shrub which reaches heights of about . The leaves, which are arranged in a spiral pattern along the twigs, have a simple, entire blade. As is the case with many species in the Proteaceae, the leaves are highly variable. The shape of the leaves varies from narrow and elongate (lanceolate, or lance shaped) to broad and ellipse-shaped, or anything in between. The base of the leaf can be narrow or broad, and the leaf tip can be pointed or rounded. They usually range from in length, occasionally reaching lengths of , and are wide. Young leaves are often covered with dense, reddish hairs while older leaves tend to have smooth surfaces with hairs concentrated along the main veins on the lower surface of the leaf.
Plants have a terminal or lateral
conflorescence (a type of
inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
).
The inflorescences, which are usually long ;but occasionally as much as , bear flowers that can be white, pink, yellow or red in colour.
The
tepal
A tepal is one of the outer parts of a flower (collectively the perianth). The term is used when these parts cannot easily be classified as either sepals or petals. This may be because the parts of the perianth are undifferentiated (i.e. of very ...
s (petals and
sepal
A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 The term ''sepalum'' was coined b ...
s) are mostly
fused along their length, with only the tips of the tepals unfused. The pollen grains have three pores, a condition that is thought to be primitive in the Proteaceae.
Classification
Together with ''
Telopea'', ''Alloxylon'' and ''
Embothrium
''Embothrium'' is a genus of two to eight species (depending on taxonomic interpretation) in the plant family Proteaceae, native to southern South America, in Chile and adjacent western Argentina; the genus occurs as far south as Tierra del Fuego ...
'', ''Oreocallis'' makes up a small group of terminal often red-flowering showy plants scattered around the southern edges of the
Pacific Rim
The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The ''Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geologic Pacific Ring of Fire.
List of co ...
. Known as the
Embothriinae
The Grevilleoideae are a subfamily of the plant family Proteaceae. Mainly restricted to the Southern Hemisphere, it contains around 46 genera and about 950 species. Genera include ''Banksia'', ''Grevillea'', and ''Macadamia''.
Description
T ...
, this is an ancient group with roots in the mid
Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
, when
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
Antarctica
Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
were linked by land.
Almost all these species have red terminal flowers, and hence the subtribe's origin and floral appearance must predate the splitting of
Gondwana
Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...
into Australia, Antarctica, and South America over 60 million years ago. The prominent position and striking colour of many species within the subtribe both in Australia and South America strongly suggest they are adapted to pollination by birds, and have been for over 60 million years.
''Triporopollenites ambiguus'' is an ancient member of the proteaceae known only from pollen deposits, originally described from Eocene deposits in Victoria. The fossil pollen closely resembles that of ''T. truncata'', ''
Alloxylon pinnatum
''Alloxylon pinnatum'', known as Dorrigo waratah, is a tree of the family Proteaceae found in warm-temperate rainforest of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales in eastern Australia. It has shiny green leaves that are either pinnate ...
'' as well as ''O. grandiflora''.
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 ...
, ''Oreocallis grandiflora'', is a plant with terminal showy red, pink yellow or whitish inflorescences found in mountainous areas in Peru and southern Ecuador. It was originally described by French naturalist
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (1 August 1744 – 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck (; ), was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biologi ...
in 1786 as ''Embothrium grandiflora''. Robert Brown used it as the type species for the genus ''Oreocallis'' when he circumscribed the genus is 1810. As envisioned by Brown, the genus included both South American and Australian species, but in 1991 Peter Weston and Michael Crisp split the Australian species out of ''Oreocallis'' and placed them in a new genus, ''Alloxylon''.
In 1954, the Dutch botanist Hermann Sleumer split ''O. grandiflora'' into two species, placing individuals with smooth leaves and twigs and pale, white or pink flowers into a new species, ''O. mucronata'', while leaving those with hairy leaves and twigs and darker red flowers in ''O. grandiflora''. Pennington (2007) rejected Sleumer's split, arguing that the hairiness of the leaves and twigs often varied within individuals, and did not vary consistently with flower colour. Weston and Crisp also suggested that differences in flower colour and the angle at which the mature flowers are held may justify this split. While Pennington acknowledged that differences in these characters exist, he argued that the variation was continuous and not the sort of binary variation that would justify a split into two species. He did acknowledge, however, that this difference may be more apparent in live plants and suggested that further study is needed.
In 2016, a study comparing the pollination ecology of ''Oreocallis grandiflora'' at northern and southern ends of its distribution, found evidence of divergence in
style
Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to:
* Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable
* Design, the process of creating something
* Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...
length and flower openness, nectar standing crop and secretion rate, and pollinator community among Ecuadorian and Peruvian populations. Divergences in floral traits may be related to a combination of factors, including
genetic drift
Genetic drift, also known as allelic drift or the Wright effect, is the change in the frequency of an existing gene variant (allele) in a population due to random chance.
Genetic drift may cause gene variants to disappear completely and there ...
and isolation by distance, distinctive suites of pollinators, or heterospecific pollen competition.
Habitat and ecology
''Oreocallis grandiflora'' is a characteristic species in certain semi-deciduous forests in valleys and evergreen upper montane forest in the
Andean
The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...
forests of southern Ecuador and evergreen
sclerophyllous
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...
forests in northern Peru. It grows at elevations between above sea level. It tolerates habitat disturbance, and may be expanding its range in response to increased human activity.
Apparently, floration is constant throughout the year.
Pollinator communities vary with distribution and floral visitation occurs during day and night, albeit nocturnal visitation is reported in southern Ecuador only.
During the day, inflorescences are visited by birds, at least 14
hummingbird
Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...
species including ''
Metallura tyrianthina'', ''
Aglaeactis cupripennis'' and ''
Coeligena iris''.
Mammals are the only nocturnal visitors,
Phyllostomid
The New World leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) are found from southern North America to South America, specifically from the Southwest United States to northern Argentina. They are ecologically the most varied and diverse family within the orde ...
bat
''Anoura geoffroyi'', and Andean mouse ''
Microryzomys altissimus
''Microryzomys altissimus'', also known as the Páramo colilargo or highland small rice rat, is a species of rodent in the genus ''Microryzomys'' of family Cricetidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, but the Colombian segment may be a ...
''; the role of ''M. altissimus'' as actual pollinator is yet to be confirmed, although samples taken from its fur indicate pollen removal.
Uses
The plant is used for firewood, furniture/carpentry;
its "pleasantly mottled cream-white, pinkish and pale brown wood" was used for inlay work and borders on chess boards. It also has medicinal uses.
The seeds are eaten in southern Ecuador.
References
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q2711248, from2=Q15548413
Proteaceae genera
Monotypic Proteaceae genera
Trees of Peru
Trees of Ecuador
Flora of the Andes