''Saurauia'' is a genus of plants in the family Actinidiaceae. It comprises about over 300 species distributed in the tropics and subtropics of

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

and South and Central America. Genetic evidence and the cell biology of the group support

monophyly 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 grou ...

of the genus. Monophyly of the genus is also supported by micromorphological characters and by phylogenetic analysis, although the exact evolutionary relationships of ''Saurauia'' with the other two genera of the Actinidiaceae, ''

Actinidia ''Actinidia'' is a genus of woody and, with a few exceptions, dioecious plants native to temperate eastern Asia, occurring throughout most of China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan, and extending north to southern areas of Russian Far East and south i ...

'' and ''

Clematoclethra ''Clematoclethra'' is a genus of plants in the family Actinidiaceae. It contains about 20 species and is endemic to subtropical and temperate regions of central and western China. Monophyly of the group is supported by genetic evidence and als ...

'', are not well understood. It is also the only extant genus within its family whose natural distribution includes areas outside of Asia (tropical South and Central America).

Description

The floral characteristics of ''Saurauia'' are similar to those in the other members of the Actinidiaceae. The main floral differences between ''Saurauia'' and the other members are that the species of ''Saurauia'' have 3-5 carpels while ''

'' has 3-30 or more and ''

'' has 4 or 5. Also, ''Saurauia'' is the only genus in the Actinidiaceae whose members may be

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

or functionally

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

Fossil record

The oldest

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

records of ''Saurauia'' include characteristic seed

synapomorphies In phylogenetics, an apomorphy (or derived trait) is a novel character or character state that has evolved from its ancestral form (or plesiomorphy). A synapomorphy is an apomorphy shared by two or more taxa and is therefore hypothesized to have ...

of the genus that are from the late

Turonian The Turonian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the second age in the Late Cretaceous Epoch, or a stage in the Upper Cretaceous Series. It spans the time between 93.9 ± 0.8 Ma and 89.8 ± 1 Ma (million years ago). The Turonian is preceded by t ...

(about 89 Ma) of

Central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

. Two

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species were established, †''Saurauia alenae'' and †''Saurauia antique'', both are recorded from several assemblages in

and ranging in age from the late

to the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

Species

Species include:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q137524 Ericales genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot