:Stewartia'' as described by

Philibert Commerçon Philibert Commerson (; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773), sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries, was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769. ...

is a synonym of ''

Dombeya ''Dombeya'' is a flowering plant genus. Traditionally included in the family Sterculiaceae, it is included in the expanded Malvaceae in the APG and most subsequent systematics. These plants are known by a number of vernacular names which sometim ...

''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. ''Vascular Plant Families and Genera''
Theaceae
Bean, W. J. (1980). ''Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles'' 4: 507-513. .Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Collins Photographic Guide to Trees''. .) is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of 8-20 species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the family Theaceae, related to ''

Camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in eastern and southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are more than 220 described species, with some controversy ...

''. Most of the species are native to eastern

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 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, with two (''S. malacodendron, S. ovata'') in southeast

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

south to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

.Li, J., Del Tredici, P., Yang, S., & Donoghue, M. J. (2002). Phylogenetic relationships and biogeography of Stewartia (Camellioideae, Theaceae) inferred from nuclear ribosomal DNA ITS sequences. ''Rhodora'' 104: 117-133
pdf file
. They are

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s and

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s, mostly

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

, though some species (e.g. ''S. pteropetiolata'') are

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

; the evergreen species form a genetically distinct group and are split into a separate genus ''Hartia'' by some botanists, but others retain them within ''Stewartia''.''Flora of China'
draft account of Theaceae
/ref> The Asian species include both shrubs and trees, growing to 3–20 m tall, while the American species are shrubs growing 3–5 m tall, rarely becoming small trees. The

bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, ...

is very distinctive, smooth orange to yellow-brown, peeling in fine flakes. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are alternately arranged, simple, serrated, usually glossy, and 3–14 cm long. The

flower A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechani ...

s are large and conspicuous, 3–11 cm diameter, with 5 (occasionally 6-8) white petals; flowering is in mid to late summer. The

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...

is a dry five-valved capsule, with one to four

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

s in each section. The species are adapted to

acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...

s, and do not grow well on

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Chalk ...

or other

calcium Calcium is a chemical element with the symbol Ca and atomic number 20. As an alkaline earth metal, calcium is a reactive metal that forms a dark oxide-nitride layer when exposed to air. Its physical and chemical properties are most similar to ...

-rich soils. They also have a high

rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

fall requirement and will not tolerate

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

Etymology

The genus was named in 1753 by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

to honour John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute. Owing to a transcription error, Linnaeus was given the name as 'Stewart', and consequently spelled the name "Stewartia" (and continued to do so in all his subsequent publications). Some botanists and horticulturists, mainly in the pastL'Héritier de Brutelle, C. L. (1785). ''Stirpes Novae aut Minus Cognitae'' (cited by W. J. Bean 1980).

Siebold, P. F. von Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (17 February 1796 – 18 October 1866) was a German physician, botanist and traveler. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora and fauna and the introduction of Western medicine in Japan. He was ...

, &

Zuccarini, J. G. Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini (10 August 1797 – 18 February 1848) was a German botanist, Professor of Botany at the University of Munich. He worked extensively with Philipp Franz von Siebold, assisting in describing his collections from Japan, but al ...

(1835). ''Flora Japonica'' 1: 181, t.96
Facsimile
Dippel, L. (1889). ''Handbuch der Laubholzkunde''. Darmstadt

but still widely in the UK have interpreted Article 60 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature to consider "Stewartia" an orthographical error to be corrected to ''Stuartia'', but this type of correction has been discouraged by changes to the code in recent times. During the 19th century, the spelling ''Stuartia'' was "almost universally" used. However, the original spelling "Stewartia" has been accepted by virtually all systematic botanists in recent treatments of the family Chang, H. & Ren, S. (1998). Theaceae/Theoideae. ''Flora Reipublicae Popularis Sinicae'' 49 (3).Stevens, P. F., Dressler, S. & Weitzman, A. L. (2004). Theaceae. In K. Kubitzki (ed.), ''Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' 6: 463-471. and genus Spongberg, S. A. (1974). A review of deciduous-leaved ''Stewartia'' (Theaceae). ''Journal of the Arnold Arboretum'' 55: 182-214.Li, J. (1996). Systematic study on the genera ''Stewartia'' and ''Hartia'' (Theaceae). ''Acta Phytotaxonomica Sinica'' 34: 48–67.Prince, L. M. (2002). Circumscription and biogeographic patterns in the Eastern North American-East Asian genus ''Stewartia'' (Theaceae: Stewartieae): insight from chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequence data. ''Castanea'' 67: 290-301. as well as in numerous influential horticultural publications.Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New Royal Horticultural Society Dictionary of Gardening.''

Cultivation and uses

Several species of ''Stewartia'' are grown as

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

s for their very decorative smooth orange bark and their flowers produced at a time of year when few other trees are in flower.

Species

The following species are accepted: *''

Stewartia acutisepala :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' P.L.Chiu & G.R.Zhong *'' Stewartia calcicola'' T.L.Ming & J.Li *''

Stewartia cordifolia :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' (H.L.Li) J.Li & T.L.Ming *''

Stewartia crassifolia :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' (S.Z.Yan) J.Li & T.L.Ming *'' Stewartia densivillosa'' (Hu ex Hung T.Chang & C.X.Ye) J.Li & T.L.Ming *'' Stewartia laotica'' (Gagnep.) J.Li & T.L.Ming *''

Stewartia malacodendron ''Stewartia malacodendron'', the silky camellia, silky stewartia or Virginia stewartia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae. It grows slowly into a large deciduous shrub or small tree, typically tall, but sometimes as tall as ...

'' L. *'' Stewartia medogensis'' J.Li & T.L.Ming *'' Stewartia micrantha'' (Chun) Sealy *''

Stewartia monadelpha ''Stewartia monadelpha'', known as tall stewartia or orangebark stewartia, is a deciduous shrub or multi-stemmed tree native to the temperate rainforests of Japan. ''Stewartia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. The genus nam ...

'' Siebold & Zucc. *'' Stewartia obovata'' (Chun ex Hung T.Chang) J.Li & T.L.Ming *'' Stewartia ovata'' (Cav.) Weath. *'' Stewartia pseudocamellia'' Maxim. *''

Stewartia pteropetiolata :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' W.C.Cheng *''

Stewartia rostrata ''Stewartia rostrata'', the beaked stewartia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae, native to southeastern China. The Royal Horticultural Society considers it to be a good tree for smaller gardens. References rostrata Rost ...

'' Spongberg *'' Stewartia rubiginosa'' Hung T.Chang *''

Stewartia serrata :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' Maxim. *''

Stewartia sichuanensis :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' (S.Z.Yan) J.Li & T.L.Ming *''

Stewartia sinensis ''Stewartia sinensis'', the Chinese stewartia, is a species of flowering plant in the camellia family (biology), family Theaceae, native plant, native to central and eastern China. It is typically a small deciduous tree, growing to about tall. I ...

'' Rehder & E.H.Wilson *''

Stewartia sinii :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' (Y.C.Wu) Sealy *''

Stewartia tonkinensis :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' (Merr.) C.Y.Wu ex J.Li *''

Stewartia villosa :Stewartia'' as described by Philibert Commerçon is a synonym of ''Dombeya. ''Stewartia'' (sometimes spelled ''Stuartia''Sprague, T.A. (1928). The correct spelling of certain generic names. III. ''Kew Bulletin'' 1928: 337-365.Royal Botanic Gar ...

'' Merr.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q388277 Ericales genera