''Carpodetus'' 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 in the Rousseaceae

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

. It was formerly considered to lie within the

Escalloniaceae Escalloniaceae is a family of flowering plants consisting of about 130 species in eight genera. In the APG II system it is one of eight families in the euasterids II clade (campanulids) that are unplaced as to order. More recent research has pro ...

. Its species occur in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

, and

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (; ), is an island country in Melanesia located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of northern Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, east o ...

. The genus is characterised by small trees with

alternate Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * Alternative comics, or independent comics are an alternative to mainstream superh ...

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

leaves, bearing small white flowers with few stamens.

Species

Described species include: *'' Carpodetus amplus'' Reeder *'' Carpodetus arboreus'' (Lauterb. & K.Schum.) Schltr. *'' Carpodetus archboldianus'' Reeder *'' Carpodetus denticulatus'' (Ridl.) Reeder *'' Carpodetus flexuosus'' (Ridl.) Reeder *'' Carpodetus fuscus'' Reeder *'' Carpodetus grandiflorus'' Schltr. *'' Carpodetus major'' Schltr. *'' Carpodetus montanus'' (Ridl.) Reeder *'' Carpodetus pullei'' Schltr. *''

Carpodetus serratus ''Carpodetus serratus'' is an evergreen tree with small ovate or round, mottled leaves with a toothy margin, and young twigs grow zig-zag, and fragrant white flowers in 5 cm panicles and later black chewy berries. It is an endemic of New Zea ...

'' J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.

Taxonomy

''Carpodetus'' and its

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 ...

''C. serratus'' were first described by father and son Forster in 1773 and placed in the

Saxifragaceae Saxifragaceae is a family of Herbaceous plant, herbaceous Perennial plant, perennial flowering plants, within the core eudicot Order (biology), order Saxifragales. The Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy of the family has been greatly revised and the ...

. In 1934 it was assigned to the newly created

by Hutchinson in his major revision of the dicotyledon families. In the

APG III system The APG III system of flowering plant classification is the third version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). Published in 2009, it was superseded in 2016 by a f ...

, ''Carpodetus'' has been referred to the

Rousseaceae Rousseaceae is a plant family in the order Asterales containing trees and shrubs. The fruit is a berry or capsule. Leaves are simple, with toothed margins. Leaf stipules are not seen in this group. The family contains four genera and twelve or t ...

Phylogeny

''Carpodetus'' is the sister to the clade consisting of ''Abrophyllum'' and ''Cuttsia''. ''Roussea'' is sister to the rest of the family and is geographically most distanced from the other genera. Most related to this family are the Campanulaceae. This results in the following phylogenetic tree.

Etymology

''Carpodetus'' is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

words καρπός () (fruit) and (bound together), a reference that the seeds are bound together in clusters in the berry. ''cited on''

References

Rousseaceae Asterales genera {{Asterales-stub