''Artocarpus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of approximately 60 trees and shrubs of Southeast

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 are ...

n and Pacific origin, belonging to the mulberry family,

Moraceae The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family — are a family of flowering plants comprising about 38 genera and over 1100 species. Most are widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, less so in temperate climates; however ...

. Most species of ''Artocarpus'' are restricted to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainlan ...

; a few cultivated species are more widely distributed, especially '' A. altilis'' (breadfruit) and '' A. heterophyllus'' (jackfruit), which are cultivated throughout the tropics.

Description

All ''Artocarpus'' species are laticiferous

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 or shrubs that are composed of leaves, twigs and stems capable of producing a milky

sap Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separ ...

. The flora type is monoecious and produces unisexual

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; furthermore, both sexes are present within the same plant. The plants produce small, greenish, female flowers that grow on short, fleshy spikes. Following pollination, the flowers grow into a syncarpous

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 ...

, and these are capable of growing into very large sizes. The stipulated leaves vary from small and entire (''

Artocarpus integer ''Artocarpus integer'', commonly known as chempedak or cempedak, is a species of tree in the family Moraceae in the same genus as breadfruit and jackfruit. It is native to Southeast Asia. Cempedak is an important crop in Malaysia and is also ...

'') to large and lobed ('' Artocarpus altilis''), with the cordate leaves of the species ''A. altilis'' ending in long, sharp tips.

Taxonomy

The name ''Artocarpus'' is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

words ''artos'' ("bread") and ''karpos'' ("fruit"). This name was coined by

Johann Reinhold Forster Johann Reinhold Forster (22 October 1729 – 9 December 1798) was a German Reformed (Calvinist) pastor and naturalist of partially Scottish descent who made contributions to the early ornithology of Europe and North America. He is best known ...

and J. Georg Adam Forster, a father-and-son team of botanists aboard HMS ''Resolution'' on James Cook's second voyage; they used it in their book '' Characteres generum plantarum''. It is maintained as a conserved name. Although fossils of ''Artocarpus'' have been reported from as early as the Late Cretaceous, these fossils generally that lack key diagnostic characters such as that could definitively place them in the genus. The last common ancestor of all living ''Artocarpus'' likely originated in the vicinity of

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

, from which ''Artocarpus'' dispersed elsewhere in Asia and Oceania.

Subgenera

Recent phylogenetic research, based on leaf arrangement, leaf anatomical characters and stipules, indicates that there are at least two subgenera in ''Artocarpus'': *Subgenus ''

Artocarpus ''Artocarpus'' is a genus of approximately 60 trees and shrubs of Southeast Asian and Pacific origin, belonging to the mulberry family, Moraceae. Most species of ''Artocarpus'' are restricted to Southeast Asia; a few cultivated species are more w ...

'': Perianth of fruit is partially connate (fused). *Subgenus '' Pseudojaca'': Perianth is entirely connate. *Subgenus ''Cauliflori'' Subgenus ''Pseudojaca'' is allied to the genus ''

Prainea ''Prainea'' is a genus of trees in the plant family Moraceae that is native to Southeast Asia. It is sometimes treated as a subgenus of Artocarpus. It is dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that i ...

'', and some researchers treat this taxon as a fourth subgenus of ''Artocarpus''.

Extant species

Fossil record

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 ...

leaves and fruits of †''Artocarpus dicksoni'' have been found in

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 ...

formations of

West Greenland Kitaa, originally Vestgrønland ("West Greenland"), is a former administrative division of Greenland. It was by far the most populated of the divisions, being home to almost 90% of the total population. The divisions were de facto replaced by st ...

leaves of †''Artocarpus ordinarius'' have been found in

stratum at the south bank of the

Yukon River The Yukon River ( Gwich'in: ''Ųųg Han'' or ''Yuk Han'', Yup'ik: ''Kuigpak'', Inupiaq: ''Kuukpak'', Deg Xinag: ''Yeqin'', Hän: ''Tth'echù'' or ''Chuu k'onn'', Southern Tutchone: Chu Nìikwän, russian: Юкон, Yukon) is a major watercourse ...

just above

Rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * "O'er the Ramparts We Watched" is a key line from "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

. Fossils of †''Artocarpus californica'' have been described from

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

and

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

strata of the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

coast of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

and

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. 8

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 ...

species of ''Artocarpus'' (†''A. capellinii'', †''A. isseli'', †''A. macrophylla'', †''A. massalongoi'', †''A. multinervis'', †''A. ovalifolia'', †''A. sismondai'' and †''A. taramellii'') from the

lower Oligocene The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two ages or the lower of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded by the Priabonian Stage (part of the Eocene) and is followed by the Chatti ...

, have been described from a fossil leaves collected from 1857 to 1889 in Santa Giustina and

Sassello Sassello ( lij, Sascello; locally ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Savona in the Italian region Liguria, located about west of Genoa and about north of Savona in the northern side of the Ligurian Apennines. It is the birthp ...

in Central

Liguria it, Ligure , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

.Oligocene fossil leaves of the Perrando Collection: history, preservation and paleoclimatic meaning by Maria Cristina Bonci, Grazia Vannucci, Simona Tacchino & Michele Piazza – Bollettino della Società Paleontologica Italiana, 50 (3), 2011, 145–164. Modena, 30 dicembre 2011 – ISSN 0375-7633 – doi:10.4435/BSPI.2011.14

Uses

Several

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

in the genus bear edible fruit and are commonly cultivated: Breadfruit ('' Artocarpus altilis''), Cempedak (''

''), Jackfruit (''

Artocarpus heterophyllus The jackfruit (''Artocarpus heterophyllus''), also known as jack tree, is a species of tree in the fig, mulberry, and breadfruit family (Moraceae). Its origin is in the region between the Western Ghats of southern India, all of Bangladesh, Sri ...

''), Kwai Muk ('' Artocarpus parvus''), Lakoocha (''

Artocarpus lakoocha ''Artocarpus lacucha'', also known as monkey jack or monkey fruit, is a tropical evergreen tree species of the family Moraceae. It is distributed throughout the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. The tree is valued for its wood; its fruit ...

''), Pudau ('' Artocarpus kemando''), ''Anjily'' (a.k.a. Jungle Jack) (''

Artocarpus hirsutus ''Artocarpus hirsutus'', commonly known as wild jack, is a tropical evergreen tree species that is native to India, primarily in Kerala, but also in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, where it prefers moist, deciduous to partially evergreen ...

''), Chaplaish ('' Artocarpus chama''), and Marang (''

Artocarpus odoratissimus ''Artocarpus odoratissimus'' is a species of flowering plant in the Moraceae family. It is a commonly called marang, madang, timadang, terap, tarap, kiran, green pedalai, or johey oak. It is native to Borneo, Palawan, and Mindanao Island, and ...

''). Breadfruit and jackfruit are cultivated widely in the tropical Southeast Asia. Other species are cultivated locally for their timber, fruit or edible seeds. Anjily, ''A. hirsutus'', is grown for fruit and

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

in the Western Ghats.

Gallery

File:Artocarpus elasticus Reinw. ex Blume - Bendo, Terap.jpg, ''Artocarpus elasticus'', Heritage Tree, Terap, Fort Canning, Singapore File:Artocarpus nitidus subsp. lingnanensis.jpg, Bark of Artocarpus nitidus subsp. lingnanensis File:Starr_030807-0064_Artocarpus_odoratissimus.jpg, Marang (''A. odoratissimus'') is in the ''Artocarpus'' subgenus.

Notes

References

*Zerega, N. J. C. and T. J. Motley. 2001. ''Artocarpus'' (Moraceae) molecular phylogeny and the systematics and origins of breadfruit, ''Artocarpus altilis''. Botanical Society of America Annual Meeting. Albuquerque, NM. August 12–16, 2001. {{Moraceae genera Moraceae genera Taxa named by Johann Reinhold Forster Taxa named by Georg Forster