''Beaupreopsis'' is a genus of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

in 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 ...

, with just one species in the genus, ''Beaupreopsis paniculata''. It is native to New Caledonia on the south of Grand Terre. Its habitat is from open maquis, to mountain area as low scrub, on a substrate of eroded

ultramafic Ultramafic rocks (also referred to as ultrabasic rocks, although the terms are not wholly equivalent) are igneous and meta-igneous rocks with a very low silica content (less than 45%), generally >18% MgO, high FeO, low potassium, and are composed ...

rocks.

Characteristics

The plants are shrubs, rarely exceeding 1.50 m in height, with thick branches, scattered and few. They have pseudo-whorled leaves (5-10 x 0, 20-0, 60 cm), more or less toothed or lobed at the apex, cuneate at the base, leathery, venation slightly prominent, petiole short and robust. Flowers are small, white or pinkish in terminal panicles from 20 to 50 cm. The fruits are small and hairy, containing a single seed.

Ecology

The soils of ultramafic rocks, which are mining terrains, have been a refuge for many native plant species of New Caledonia because they are toxic and their mineral content is poorly suited to most foreign species of plants.Dossier > La flore de Nouvelle-Calédonie - Première partie
/ref> On New Caledonia examples of such soils commonly have an excess of magnesium, plus unusually high concentrations of

phytotoxic Phytotoxins are substances that are poisonous or toxic to the growth of plants. Phytotoxic substances may result from human activity, as with herbicides, or they may be produced by plants, by microorganisms, or by naturally occurring chemical react ...

compounds of heavy metals such as nickel. Often thick,

magnesite Magnesite is a mineral with the chemical formula (magnesium carbonate). Iron, manganese, cobalt, and nickel may occur as admixtures, but only in small amounts. Occurrence Magnesite occurs as veins in and an alteration product of ultramafic ro ...

calcrete Caliche () is a sedimentary rock, a hardened natural cement of calcium carbonate that binds other materials—such as gravel, sand, clay, and silt. It occurs worldwide, in aridisol and mollisol soil orders—generally in arid or semiarid regions, ...

caprock Caprock or cap rock is a more resistant rock type overlying a less resistant rock type,Kearey, Philip (2001). ''Dictionary of Geology'', 2nd ed., Penguin Reference, London, New York, etc., p. 41.. . analogous to an upper crust on a cake that is har ...

laterite Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

and

duricrust Duricrust is a hard layer on or near the surface of soil. Duricrusts can range in thickness from a few millimeters or centimeters to several meters. It is a general term (not to be confused with duripan) for a zone of chemical precipitation and ...

forms over ultramafic rocks in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

and

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

environments. The

floral 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 mechanism ...

assemblages associated with highly nickeliferous ultramafic rocks are indicative tools for

mineral exploration Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, and ...

Systematics

The genus ''Beaupreopsis'' is most closely related to the genera ''

Cenarrhenes ''Cenarrhenes'' is a monytypic genus in the family Proteaceae containing the single species ''Cenarrhenes nitida'', known as the Port Arthur plum or native plum. ''Cenarrhenes nitida'' is an evergreen shrub to small tree endemic to the rainfores ...

'' (

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

) and ''

Dilobeia ''Dilobeia'' is a genus of trees in the family Proteaceae. It is endemic to Madagascar and contains two recognised species. It is most closely related to the genera ''Cenarrhenes'' (Tasmania) and ''Beaupreopsis'' (New Caledonia ) , anthem = ...

'' (

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q4877611, from2=Q15574805 Proteaceae Monotypic Proteaceae genera Endemic flora of New Caledonia Taxa named by Jean Antoine Arthur Gris Taxa named by Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart Taxa named by Robert Virot