''Aspidostemon'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s belonging to the family

Lauraceae Lauraceae, or the laurels, is a plant Family (biology), family that includes the bay laurel, true laurel and its closest relatives. This family comprises about 2850 known species in about 45 genus (biology), genera worldwide. They are dicotyled ...

. It occurs in

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

Taxonomy

The genus was described by

Jens Gunter Rohwer Jens may refer to: * Jens (given name), a list of people with the name * Jens (surname), a list of people * Jens, Switzerland, a municipality * 1719 Jens, an asteroid See also

* Jensen (disambiguation) * Jenssi {{disambiguation ...

& Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie'' 109 (1): 74 in 1987. The

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

is ''

Aspidostemon perrieri ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte ...

'' ( Danguy) Rohwer. The number of collections available is not large. The identification was done at the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Description

They are shrubs or

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, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s up to 25 m high,

hermaphrodite A hermaphrodite () is a sexually reproducing organism that produces both male and female gametes. Animal species in which individuals are either male or female are gonochoric, which is the opposite of hermaphroditic. The individuals of many ...

s. The leaves are entire, elliptical or narrowly elliptical. The fruit is a berry-like drupe dispersed mostly by birds. ''Aspidostemon'' species are no exception among the Lauraceae; they are trees with small flowers, hard to detect and collect and often overlooked or ignored when plants easier to collect or with showier flowers are at hand. ''Aspidostemon'' is characterized by its opposite leaves, flowers with three or six stamens (compared to 9 in ''Cryptocarya''), and a fruit which is completely enclosed in the enlarged hypanthium with persistent floral parts attached to the top of the fruit. When the genus was described by Rohwer & Richter in 1987, they recognized 11 species, but today 28 species are accepted. Some species are endangered or almost extinct. Based on a combination of wood anatomical, vegetative, and floral characters, noted by such earlier botanists as Kostermans in 1957, the species of genus ''Aspidostemon'' were placed formerly as belonging to subgenera '' Hexanthera'' and '' Trianthera'' of''

Cryptocarya ''Cryptocarya'' is a genus of about 360 species of flowering plants in the laurel family, Lauraceae. Most species are trees, occasionally shrubs, distributed through the Neotropical, Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms. Most plant ...

''.

Ecology

''Aspidostemon'' species have the large trees characteristic of rainforest in

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

laurel forest Laurel forest, also called laurisilva or laurissilva, is a type of subtropical forest found in areas with high humidity and relatively stable, mild temperatures. The forest is characterized by broadleaf tree species with evergreen, glossy and el ...

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s in

and nearby islands and restricted to this region. They belong to an ancient isolated

Gondwanian Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, Zealandia, Arabia, and the ...

element of

Laurales The Laurales are an order of flowering plants. They are magnoliids, related to the Magnoliales. The order includes about 2500–2800 species from 85 to 90 genera, which comprise seven families of trees and shrubs. Most of the species are tropic ...

. A great number of species are in danger of extinction due to

overexploitation Overexploitation, also called overharvesting or ecological overshoot, refers to harvesting a renewable resource to the point of diminishing returns. Continued overexploitation can lead to the destruction of the resource, as it will be unable to ...

timber extraction Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks

and

loss of habitat Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. They are leafy canopy trees with erect or spreading branches. They grow to heights of up to 25 m, or some species to 40 m. Their stout

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure, and the stem of woody plants * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Comput ...

s are up to 1 m in diameter. The genus is easily recognizable by its bark which is soft and cheese-like. The thick, leathery leaves are dark green. The leaves are glossy laurel type. The leaves of ''Aspidostemon'' species are not infrequently acuminate, with an acumen folded into a short tube. On opening a few of these inrolled apices, egg cases similar to those found in leaf domatia are found; epiphyllous hepatics were also found. These inrolled apices apparently function as domatia and shelter mites that clean the leaves. The fruit is an important food source for birds, usually from specialized genera. Birds eat the whole fruit and regurgitate or defecate the seeds intact, expanding the seeds in the best conditions for germination ( ornithochory). In some species,

seed dispersal In spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vectors, ...

is carried out by

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

Accepted species

29 species are currently accepted:''Aspidostemon'' Rohwer & H.G.Richt.
''Plants of the World Online'', Kew Science. Accessed 28 August 2022. *''

Aspidostemon andohahelensis ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte ...

'' van der Werff *''

Aspidostemon antongilensis ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte ...

'' van der Werff *''

Aspidostemon apiculatus ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte ...

'' van der Werff *''

Aspidostemon capuronii ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte ...

'' (Danguy) Rohwer *'' Aspidostemon reticulatus'' van der Werff *'' Aspidostemon synandra'' Rohwer *''

Aspidostemon trianthera ''Aspidostemon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Lauraceae. It occurs in Madagascar. Taxonomy The genus was described by Jens Gunter Rohwer & Hans Georg Richter in ''Jahrbuch für Botanische Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte ...

'' (Kosterm.) Rohwer *'' Aspidostemon trichandra'' van der Werff

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4808044 Lauraceae genera Endemic flora of Madagascar